For most students, arriving at college for the first time means driving a few hours; for Alejandra Rivera, it means entering a new country and way of life.

Rivera (freshman-mechanical engineering) is from Puerto Rico and said she had only been to the United States a few times before beginning at Penn State.

"It's a little bit hard adjusting, but it's worth it in the end," she said.

She said there's a lot of nature at Penn State compared to Puerto Rico, where she said the college campuses are small and without many trees.

Rivera said she had to adjust to the temperature when she arrived at Penn State.

"It's so cold here," she said. "I came from 90-degree weather."

She misses her family and friends the most, and she doesn't get to talk to them very often because it's long distance and expensive. But, she said, in general the atmosphere is very different.

"The environment is so different -- people are nicer," she said.

Corey Whitesell, Program Coordinator for International Student Services, said there are currently 1,130 international students registered this summer at Penn State. During the spring 2006 semester, she said there were 2,960.

Rivera said coming to Penn State was easier because of the Pre-First Year in Engineering and Science (PREF) summer program.

In the PREF program, a group of students go through six weeks of intensive training in English, calculus, chemistry and physics. Rivera said students in the program are in the classroom from about 8 a.m. to about 9 p.m., adding that the program is in place to help prepare them for their intended majors of science and engineering.

"Coming to PREF was probably the best thing that ever happened to me," she said.

Anita Persaud, associate director for the multicultural engineering program, said the PREF program is a retention effort in the College of Engineering to help underrepresented minority students prepare for their engineering courses in the fall.

She said they invite students based on their academic criteria, and the retention rate for students getting into the colleges of science or engineering is in the mid-70s.

Persaud said they have a very diverse group of students in the program.

Juan Morales (freshman-civil engineering) said the food is very different here compared to Colombia, where he lived until 2001.

"I'm used to beans and rice," he said. "Everything here is fast food and unhealthy."

Morales said he doesn't eat macaroni and cheese, and it's hard getting used to that as a meal.

"I'm currently eating a lot of Chinese food because I don't want to eat the other food," he said.

He had to get used to the change in culture when he arrived -- and getting used to English was hard at first.

"I was used to talking to my family and friends in Spanish," he said.

Morales said he has enjoyed learning about and getting into other cultures.

"They're teaching me, and I'm teaching them, and it's a great feeling," he said.

For Ignacio Russo (freshman-chemical engineering), the time it took him to get to school was a big change from what he was used to in Brazil.

Russo lived in Argentina until he was 4, then moved to Brazil and lived there for 10 years. He then moved to Hershey in 2001.

"In Brazil, it took me an hour to get to school," he said. "Then in Hershey, it only took seven minutes."

He said he lived in a Brazilian city of more than 20 million people so there was always something to do.

"You could go to clubs, movies, theme parks and you could always play soccer," he said.

Although he is now more comfortable in his surroundings, Russo said he misses the freedom and independence that he had in Brazil.

"You weren't restricted to dorms in college in Brazil, and the drinking age is 18," he said.