Name: Laura Balboa
Major: English
Classification: Sophomore
Graduation date: Fall 2026
Home country: Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Extracurricular activities: “I like to crochet.”
What are the differences between your hometown and the United States? “I feel that in Mexico it is easier to find ways to spend the afternoon. You can leave your house and around the corner is a store or a park and in the United States you have to go by car anywhere, and basically, you can only go shopping to the mall or to eat.”
What is on your bucket list? “I have several wishes but I think none of them are something like, ‘Oh, I want to go to Florida,’ or something like that. It’s more like, ‘I want to finish this knitting project that I have or I want to find a job.’ Things like that.”
Who is your role model? “I think my sister. She’s always been very independent. Right now, [she] is a lawyer and has a lot of work. I see her, and I say, ‘Wow I want to be like her.’”
Why did you choose the major you are in? “Almost everyone in my family is a teacher. Most of my uncles and cousins are all teachers and well, that put me in that career. … When I thought about what subject I want to teach, I’m really not that good with small children, so I said, ‘Well, not elementary school.’ The [subject] that I am most good at is English and I said, ‘Well, English.’”
What advice would you give other international students?
“It would be that they take more advantage of the resources that the school offers and that they investigate in what ways they can get ahead. I really didn’t get much help with that because only … one other person in my family has studied in the United States. I really didn’t have a lot of support and I feel like I would have been much better [and] would have prepared myself better if I had taken advantage of the resources that the school provides.”
–Compiled by Fatima Gamez Lopez
