High school friends Anusha Kapali and Aachal Ghimire traveled nearly 7,500 miles over the course of 24 hours from their hometown in Nepal, South Asia, to come to school at St. Joseph’s College.
Before moving into the off-campus housing at St. George Tower in Brooklyn Heights in August, neither one of them had ever traveled to New York — or anywhere without their parents, for that matter.
Aachal Ghimire, left, and Anusha Kapali, right, during the Welcome Back Barbecue.
But on Sept. 5 — the first day of class — Kapali and Ghimire were full of smiles as they started their journey at SJC Brooklyn. Sitting on the grass outside the Dillon Center during SJC Brooklyn’s Welcome Back Barbecue, the friends, who are both studying accounting, feasted on some burgers as they talked about their new adventure in Brooklyn.
“It’s like I’m living in an animated movie,” Kapali said. “It’s really fun!”
“I can’t believe I’m here,” added Ghimire.
On the first day of class, Kapali and Ghimire already stumbled upon some new friends with similar backgrounds: in the freshman class alone, there are four more students from their hometown of Nepal.
Welcome Back Barbecue
As for the rest of the nearly 200 freshmen at SJC Brooklyn, students were spending their first day making new friends as they basked in the jubilance of the beginning of the school year.
“Oh my God, I love it already,” Sophie Funaro, a freshman nursing major, said during the Welcome Back Barbecue.
Funaro was joined at the barbecue by two new friends — twin sisters Jessica and Jaden Mecham from Salt Lake City, Utah, whom she met inside the residence hall.
Jessica, a child studies major, and Jaden, a nursing major, will both be playing on the SJC Brooklyn softball team this year.
Jaden said all of the positive energy she encountered on her first day is making her look forward to the four years of college ahead of her.
“I think I’m mostly excited to meet new people and to learn new things in my classes,” Jaden said.
