Interviewing Sara Kinnari

Hi everyone, it's Megan!

This week I’m going to be introducing you to my friend Sara Kinnari, who is also an international student
here at PLU. Sara is a junior this year, majoring in business administration. Her and I both grew up in
the same town, Stavanger, Norway. We even went to the same high school together, yet our paths never crossed ‘til we both came to PLU. It's a small world!

I wanted to give our international readers a better insight into what it's like to be an incoming freshman 
at PLU. I've seen Sara grow as a person and student over the past year, and wanted to gain some 
insight into her perspective. We spent the first part of our conversation reminiscing on the night we 
met. Sara recalls it being one of the first memories of her PLU experience.

“It was during international NSO (New Student Orientation), when all the international students 
went out to eat at the local restaurant, Farelli’s. After dinner, a group of us went to Target, and it was 
like I slid right into an american lifestyle right away. Yeah, that was nice. Some of the friends I made 
that night are my best friends to this day”, she says. 

After some small talk, we got to the actual questions.

Sara (right) and I on our first day of NSO!

A lot of students are nervous about going to college, but the nerves take on a whole other level when you are studying abroad. Walk me through your first days as a Lute, how were you feeling? 

When school started, I think it was harder for me to adapt than for a lot of other first-years. I was a transfer student, which meant that I had one year of university experience prior to coming to PLU. I came from a large school, where lectures were consumed by 200+ students and we didn’t have much of a social circle or environment at our campus. Coming to PLU felt a little more like high school, which I think is a benefit for new students that are just graduated from high school. PLU is a small school, so the professors care, and you see your friends around all the time, which I thought was nice. So, it was a transition, but I much prefer going to a smaller school where you have actual ties and friendships with the people around you, and your professors as well.

Exploring Seattle (only 40mins away from campus!)

In Norway, we get our education paid for as part of our social benefit system. This is the case for a lot of other countries as well, so what influenced you to choose PLU rather than pursuing an education in Norway?

Well first of all, I chose to get my degree abroad because I value the experience just as much as the education portion. So even if I didn’t get my whole degree abroad, I would’ve at least traveled as an exchange student at some point. Other than that, my mother is PLU alumni, and my cousin who I’m close with graduated from PLU in 2016. So I had a lot of people close to me who had good experiences with the school, which is why I decided to apply for PLU.

Sara and her friend in L.A. during
Spring Break Last Year!

If you could give one piece of advice for our prospective intl students, what would it be? Well, my first piece of advice would be to live on campus for at least a year. Living in dorms with a roommate is honestly the best way to get to know other PLU students outside of a classroom setting. I moved out of my dorm after a semester, but I really wish that I’d stayed on campus for another term. Secondly, I think getting an on-campus job is a really good way to make new friends. I got a job as a barista at our campus market, where I was able to make friends while also earning money. Lastly, I am the Vice President of the organization ANSA (Association for Norwegian Students Abroad), which has fostered connections and friendships between a lot of the Scandinavian students. If you’re a prospective Scandinavian student, I really recommend that you join ANSA. That way you have a foundational network of people who come from the same cultural background as you, which makes the whole transition easier.

I want to thank Sara so much for the interview, and I hope you guys enjoyed it!

- Megan