For Peter Orlos ’18, an international student from Cancún, Mexico, the decision to study abroad at Kenyon was about the opportunity to make progress. “I feel like I’m moving forward,” he said. “If I would have stayed home, it would have been the same people, the same atmosphere.”
Despite initial jitters about adjusting to life in Ohio, Orlos, an economics major, quickly threw himself into campus life. Among his many activities, he has supported fellow students as an Upper-Class Counselor, as a peer advisor with the Center for Global Engagement (CGE), as a tutor with the Student Accessibilities and Support Services Office and as a mentor for Recognizing Each Other’s Ability to Conquer the Hill (REACH), a program that helps first- and second-year underrepresented and first-generation students adjust to life at Kenyon.
Orlos, who is heavily involved with the International Society at Kenyon, also worked as a peer advisor with the CGE — a job that helped him become aware of how many opportunities Kenyon students have to study off-campus.
“By being an international student and also working as a peer advisor, I had the opportunity to really interact with the people who work in that office and realize what a variety of options I had to study abroad,” Orlos said. “Being at the CGE so much made me realize what an incredible opportunity I would miss out on if I didn’t study abroad.”
In the fall of his junior year, Orlos packed his bags yet again, this time to study for a year in Paris. Through his program, run by the Center for University Programs Abroad, Orlos is taking economics courses in French and living with a host family — an experience he says is helping him become fluent in the language.
“I’m in love with the architecture here, the food and desserts, the culture, and everything that Paris has to offer,” Orlos said. “When I was little, my dream was always to live in Paris. Now I’m finally getting a taste of what it’s like.”
Orlos has explored his wanderlust for business purposes as well. While in high school, he started his own travel agency called “Caribbean Adventures.” Orlos hired a driver, a housekeeper and a manager and now rents about eight properties in the vicinity of Cancún that he uses to accommodate his guests. He hopes to combine skills picked up from his economics major and from his international adventures in a future career in business tourism and hospitality.