By Elaine Smith

After spending two years as a scholarship student at an international high school in Israel, Frenk Katjalli is undaunted by being so far away from his native Albania; instead, he’s enjoying Toronto and its international flavour.

Katjalli had his eye on Canada, rather than Europe or the United States for his university experience and was thrilled when a President’s International Scholarship of Excellence made attending Glendon College to study business and economics a reality.

“I’m very grateful; it’s a very prestigious scholarship and without it, I wouldn’t be able to be here,” Katjalli said. “I looked at other schools thinking there was no way York would work out, and then I got the scholarship email; it was crazy and very unexpected.”

Now that the semester is underway, he is impressed with the campus, the people and his classes.

“It’s so amazing so far,” Katjalli said. “Everyone is there for you, from people in residence to professors. Orientation helped me settle into the York environment and learn about things like Presto cards, and the small classes are ideal. I also really like the whole international aspect of York and Toronto.”

Because he received transfer credits, Katjalli has flexibility with his course schedule that allows for more electives. Since he is based at Glendon, he is studying French in order to improve his skills and hopes to eventual be fluent enough to take a course taught in French. He is also busy with courses for his program such as modern economics, calculus and accounting and is finding the classes challenging in a positive way.

“Being in Canada by myself is easier than for some other international students because I’m used to studying far from home,” he said.

Katjalli is enjoying the differences between Toronto and Albania – riding the subway, using self checkout at the grocery store and the diversity of people he’s meeting here, for example. He’s looking forward to the cold, too.

“I want to see if it’s really that cold,” he says, noting that October in Albania is usually much milder than in Toronto.

He also plans to get involved with extracurricular activities and volunteering, things that kept him busy during high school years. One of his proudest achievements was organizing a student-led conference on peace and sustainability.

Afterward, Katjalli hopes to remain in Canada.

“There’s a reason so many international students stay here,” he said. “It’s very developed and there are lots of opportunities for people like me. Given the chance, why not take advantage?”