State and local
Monday, March 4,1991 The Battalion
ISA selects outstanding international student
Swiss senior receives award at talent show
HUY THANH NGUYEN/The Battalion
Melanie Goodner, who was named Most Out- international awareness and further integration of
standing International Student, seeks to promote international students at Texas A&M.
Soldier dies
day before
cease-fire
By Bridget Harrow
The Battalion
he is vice president
of public relations
for the International
Student Association,
member of three
scholarly fraternities,
teaching assistant in French,
member of the Europe Chib and
this year’s Most Outstanding
international Student.
Melanie Goodner, a Texas A&M
senior scientific nutrition major,
received the award Friday night
during intermission of the ISA
Talent Show.
“1 was honored to get this award,"
Goodlier says. “1 filled out the
application, but I never had any
idea that I would actually get it.”
Goodner was born in
Switzerland, but has dual citizenship
in the United States because her
mother is American and her father
is Swiss. Goodner’s mother was
raised in the Bryan-College Station
area and her grandparents still live
in Bryan.
Goodner says her grandparents
are Aggie advocates and
encouraged her to attend A&M.
Goodner’s brother and some of her
uncles also graduated from A&M.
“1 guess I kind of grew up in the
Aggie spirit, even if f was not from
this country,” Goodner says.
Another reason Goodner says she
chose to come to A&M is because
the University has one of the best
agricultural programs in the world.
Goodner says she hopes to attend
graduate school to get her master’s
degree in nutrition and become a
registered dietician.
To compete for the Outstanding
International Student Award,
candidates must have a GPR above a
3.75 and be involved in
extracurricular activities.
particularly those directed toward
international awareness.
Goodner’s GPR is 3.88 and she
belongs to Phi Beta Delta, the
international scholars fraternity.
Alpha Zeta, the agricultural honor
fraternity, and Phi Eta Sigma, the
freshman honor society. She also
has actively participated in ISA for
two years.
As vice president of public
relations tor ISA, Goodner helps
publish the international student
organization’s newsletter The
Planet. She also is responsible for
advertising all ISA events.
Goodner says publicizing this
year’s International Week was a
challenge.
“I tried as best as I could but
there is a lot to do,” Goodner says.
“It is hard to try and get in contact
with everybody — television, radio,
newspapers and schools. I had a
pretty busy schedule.”
Goodner also is in a student peer
educator program offered by A.P.
Beutel Health Center. As part of the
program, she will present health
education speeches on nutrition to
residence hall and student
organizations beginning this fall.
“Because nutrition is my major, I
figured it would be good
experience,” she says. “I really do
want to help my peers learn about
nutrition.”
Goodner says she had to make
some adjustments when she arrived
at A&M.
In Switzerland, she attended an
all-girl high school that mainly
concentrated on academic pursuits.
“We did not have any
extracurricular activities,” Goodner
says. “So when I came here, I was
surprised by all these things I could
She says the size of A&M’s
student body also was intimidating.
Fribourg, her hometown in
Switzerland, has about the same
population as the University.
“When I came to A&M, I felt so
lost,” Goodner says. “I was
fortunate to have my brother at
a&m.;’
Besides English, Goodner also
speaks German and French. She
says she believes learning another
language is important.
“I have always spoken English
with my parents and brother,” she
says. “But I grew up in a French-
speaking school. So I guess I am one
of those lucky people who is
perfectly bilingual. I have no accent
m either language."
Goodner says because she does
not have an accent, people usually
cannot tell she is an international
student. She says she does not have
to deal with the problems many
international students have to face.
“1 can go around and everybody
considers me American,” she says.
“There is nothing to give me away. I
have a lot of European friends that
look American, but as soon as they
talk, you know they are not because
they have such a strong accent.”
Goodner says being viewed as an
American can be an advantage
because she is able to get insight into
what people think about
international students.
“I can go around and get treated
See Goodner/Page 6
TEXAS CITY (AP) — The Per
sian Gulf cease-fire came one day
too late for Staff Sgt. Christopher
Stephens, an Army scout.
A Bradley Fighting Vehicle carry
ing Stephens was hit Tuesday by
Iraqi fire in Kuwait and exploded.
The 27-year-old father of four died
24 hours before President Bush an
nounced the end of the fighting.
His wife, Jennie Stephens, said
she heard first about the cease-fire.
“We knew everything was OK,”
she told the Houston Chronicle in an
interview from her home in Texas
City, a Gulf coast town 50 miles
south of Houston.
A knock on her door late Friday
proved her wrong.
Military officials, her pastor and
her father-in-law brought the news.
“I didn’t expect it at all,” said Mrs.
Stephens, 27. “We had plans — we
had plans to do other things.”
Chief among those was raising
four sons — ages 9, 8, 6 and 2 — and
moving to California, where her
husband, a member of the 3rd Ar
mored Division, was to be stationed
after the war.
This weekend, Mrs. Stephens
braced herself to tell her sons of
their father’s death.
“I just can’t believe it,” she said. “I
thought it was over, and I knew he
was coming back.”
They would have celebrated their
10th wedding anniversary March 14.
Both grew up in Houston and were
high-school sweethearts.
The last 4Vs years were spent in
Germany, until they moved to Texas
City in December. Stephens was sent
to the Middle East on Dec. 28.
Three of his brothers — Edmund,
31, Willard, 30, and Timothy, 25 —
are in the Army and remain in the
Middle East. Chris Stephens was the
last of the four to be shipped to the
Persian Gulf area.
Last month, he told his wife he
was heading for the front lines.
ASPIRE TO SEE GERMANY
. SUMMER 1991
LIVE THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF
CENTRAL EUROPE AND EARN TAMU
CREDIT
(Pending Course Approval)
with
Hist 402 : Germany Since
1815
Prof. Arnold Krammer 549 Harrington 845-7108
Muse 201: Music
Appreciation
Prof. Peter Lieuwen 402-A Academic 845-5660
STUDY ABROAD OFFICE
161 BIZ2ELL HALL WEST 845-0544
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iiil!
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-it
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