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TechNews | Tuesday, October 18th, 2016

    

International Students Feature: Central Asia

Alexandra Detweiler
TEC H N EWS WRITE R

Central Asia, also known as Middle
Asia, is a region in the core of Asia that is
framed by the Caspian Sea in the West, China
in the East, Afghanistan in the South, and
Russia in the North. There are many students
attending Illinois Tech that come from this
group of countries. Madina Tahmas, a second
year undergraduate student studying business
finance, was born and raised in Tashkent,
the capital of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan had
previously been a part of the USSR, and in
Tahmas’ words, “it’s very Russianized." Wayiti
Kawasaier, a second year undergraduate
student studying Mechanical Engineering,
is from an ethnic minority group in China
called the Uyghurs and attended school in
Urumqi, a city in China near Kazakhstan
and Uzbekistan's border Because of Wayiti’s
proximity to Uzbekistan, when Waiti and an
anonymous Uzbekistani student who wished
to be referred to as Murod were interviewed
together, the two were able to communicate
in Uyghur a.nd Uzbek because the languages
sounded remarkably similar According to
Murod, Uyghur and Uzbek are about 80% the
same.

One major difference between life
in Central Asia and life at Illinois Tech is,
predictably, the diet. “I miss my food mostly,"
Wayiti said. “Back home, we spend alot of time
cooking. My mom, she comes home from work
and she spends 273 hours cooking" According

to him, the food back home consists of a lot
of vegetables served upon noodles or rice.
According to Murod, “the food is completely
different."

Additionally, the three students
remarked upon the absence on holidays and
celebrations that they were used to at home.
Tahmas first mentioned Navros, a celebration
on the 21st of March that she said was,
“basically new year’s." Navros celebrates the
beginning of the year, with spring as a fresh
start. “On the night of the 21st," Tahmas
described, “we make a special dish made out of
seeds from a certain plant." According to her,
the dish, called sumalack, is stirred constantly
the whole night. At the end, the eldest of the
family throws in a rock, and when the dish is
distributed, whoever gets the rock will be the
luckiest that year The night is full of tradition,
singing songs, and making wishes. In addition,
Wayiti and Murod noted the absence of Eid, an
Islamic festival in which the family sacrifices a
sheep or a cow

From an academic perspective,
the differences are abundant. According to
Tahmas, in Uzbekistan, the schools are “more
focused on how the group does. It’s more
focused on overall achievements, overall
success. It’s very school oriented, nothing
beyond that. Here, what I like is that
professors have an approach for every single
student [and] make sure you understand the
material" School in Urumqi was very different
for Wayiti, who went to a boarding school,
style high school there. According to him, the
rooms there were alittle bigger than the ones at

McCormick Student Village, yet eight people
lived in each one. Wayiti explained, there were
“four beds, with one stacked on top of each."
There was no shower in the building; students
walked to a public shower instead. Wayiti
remarked upon the fact that there weren’t
electrical outlets in the rooms, something he
couldn’t imagine living without now Murod,
a transfer student who attended university
for some time in Uzbekistan, said that both
high school and university held classes on
Saturdays. Additionally, Murod claimed, the
“teachers here act more friendly It makes
class more interesting" All three students had
nice things to say about attending school in
Chicago. “I like [Illinois Tech]; it’s not that big,"
Wayiti said. “There are people from all over the
world. I meet a lot of friends."

Another difference, according to
Tahmas, was the “vibe itself We treat each
other as if we are family If you’re on the
street and you’re carrying really heavy bags,
someone will come up to you and say ‘hey
sister, can I help you with that?” However,
while the countries may be, as Tahmas said,
“completely, 180 degrees different," when
people from different cultures meet, they can
learn a lot from each other In Tahmas’ words,
“the more different someone is from yourself,
the more you learn who you are. It makes you
look at things from a different perspective."

Next week, watch for an international
students feature focusing on various countries
in Africal

Staff Spotlight: Thomas Henehan, Facilities

Khaleela Zaman
TECHN EWS WRITER

Meet Tom Henehan, currently
Project Manager in Design & Construction
for the Facilities Department on campus. If
you have ever wondered what goes on in that
building north of Main Building, Machinery
Hall is the building that houses the Design
& Construction components of Facilities,
which is where Henehan’s ofiice is located. In
his role as a project manager, Henehan is the
contact person for contractors and architects
on building renovation or new construction
projects on campus. Henehan acts upon
requests from users and departments on
campus for building renovations by hiring
an architect and engineers who produce
the drawings that go out to contractors for
bidding. He then looks at the bids, chooses a
contractor, and then works handeinehand with
the contractor managing the project.

This was not Heneha.n’s first position
on campus, however Since 1980, Henehan
has been working at Illinois Tech. His first job
here was with the onecampus police, which
was “exciting, because there was lots of crime
back then." After getting to know some people
working in Facilities, Henehan moved over to
the housing side, spending most of his working
hours “fixng what students broke" for over 20
years. In 2001, he was promoted to Facilities
Supervisor For a short period of time after
this, Henehan attempted to leave Illinois Tech
for a different job due to a big promotion
accompanied by a big raise. However, his

previous boss from Illinois Tech kept calling
him to come back, and he mentioned that
a position in Design & Construction was

 

open. Henehan ended up happily accepting
the construction management position in
Design & Construction at Illinois Tech after
an unrewarding three months at the higher,
paying job. As he reflects back on it now,
in terms of the pay raise he received at the
job where he lasted three months, he feels
“sometimes that doesn’t mean a lot." Since
2007, Henehan has held his current position as
Project Manager, which he says is “absolutely
[his] most favorite and rewarding job."

Henehan has truly enjoyed “seeing
the biggest changes to the academic buildings
since [he’s] been here" at Illinois Tech for all
these years, and he believes we are “finally
catching up to being modern on this campus."
He also knows “whenever you do something,
you don’t know how much students will like it."
Therefore, when he “sees new things come here
and students use them," that is one of the most
rewarding parts of his job. For example, from
all the feedback he has received, he believes
the renovations to the Lewis Hall bathrooms
in McCormick Student Village (MSV) “went
over really well." Additionally, Henehan
usually sees the E1 back lounge area filled
with students, as well as the outdoor patio
area of Life Sciences. With the campus being
designed by Mies van der Rohe, and having
such historical significance, Henehan says it
is also always a highlight getting to work with
historically significant architects. For the E1
renovations, he was in collaboration with Mies’
grandson as the architect, and he worked with
Harboe Architects on the renovations to Carr
Memorial Chapel.

For Henehan, “the interaction with
students" is his favorite part about working at
Illinois Tech. He says it is “so nice, because

[the student body] changes all the time."
Sometimes at graduation, he is able to meet
students’ parents, and his involvement with
the Alternative Spring Break (ASB) student
organization on campus allowed him to
meet even more students and staff at Illinois
Tech. Being a “big international university,"
Henehan thinks it could be easy to “question,
what is our student body like here? And then
you get to know them, and they are normal
people." He thoroughly enjoys always seeing
“that new excitement," getting to “hear what
[students] are working on, what creations"
they are producing. There really is nothing
Henehan does not like about Illinois Tech.

If Henehan could provide any
advice to students, faculty, and staff here on
campus, he highly recommends everyone
to “stay involved on campus, and things will
happenl" He has witnessed many projects,
and he knows “a lot has been done here based
on student voices, committees they are on that
drive things we do on campus." Recalling a
student who actually was able to take part in
the design process for the new chairs in the
E1 classrooms, the student’s design ended up
being physically made by a furniture company
and now so many other students can enjoy
using the studentedesigned chairs. Both
students and staff are encouraged to give their
voice, like what staff might want to see in their
ofiices or what faculty might want to see in
their labs. And if you are ever looking for a
smiling face to cheer you up, you can always
stop by Machinery Hall and visit Henehanl

 

Photo by Khaleela Zaman