Going to a noon football game may seem difficult, but alumni in Oman are excited to wake up at 3 a.m. to watch the Gamecocks play.
“It’s just cool to see the sense of community they still have and how much they talked about coming to USC and how much they loved living here,” Sponsored Student Coordinator Tyler Macchio said. “They really feel a sense of community even though they’re so far away and a completely different culture. They’re definitely doing the Carolina community proud over there.”
The USC Alumni Club in Oman, which was formed in April, is the first fully formed alumni club in a foreign country. Director for International Student Services Jody Pritt said Oman was an ideal place to begin comprehensive efforts for an alumni club abroad because of the strong presence of alumni there.
“A real theme that I saw there was that they felt that Columbia, South Carolina was a second home now, and always will be,” Pritt said. “I feel like it’s really brought a real attention to Oman in the Middle East and these students who are so active and engaged and remarkable at the university.”
There are currently 54 students from Oman at USC, and 30 more are already planning to come next year. When these Omani students graduate, they are very likely to advocate for their experience at USC when they return to their home country.
“We have an active group there already. We have students who made life-long friends when they were studying here and they’re maintaining these relationships,” Pritt said. “They’re going into the workplace and celebrating being Gamecocks for life.”
Current, non-international USC students will also be able to benefit from this new organization. The first ever study abroad in Oman for USC students will be held this year, and USC students will have the opportunity to interact with international alumni.
“One major component of that program will be that the students from USC that are on the study abroad program will have ample opportunities to interact with the alumni there,” Pritt said. “The idea is that after the day of planned programming, they’ll go live the Omani life with those students.”
The main event of the USC Alumni Club in Oman so far has been an alumni reception held on Sept. 25. Almost 50 alumni, prospective USC students, representatives from the Omani Embassy and guests attended the event, which was held in Oman’s capital city, Muscat.
Two USC alumni currently living in Oman spoke at the event, which also included networking and dinner. The former students were united at the rooftop garden of the Muscat Grand Mall, the workplace of a USC alumnus.
Salima Al Masrouri, a marketing and branding intern for International Student Services and a student from Oman, was largely responsible for planning the event. According to Al Masrouri, the most difficult parts were dealing with time differences and dealing with cultural differences.
“Here I know exactly who to call for catering. I know exactly who to call to get a sound system and a mic set up. But there, this was kind of new for everyone,” Pritt said. “I was really proud of the team when it all came together. We put something together with a vast ocean between us.”
The members of the USC Alumni Club in Oman already want to serve as a model for alumni clubs in other countries.
Since the formation of the organization in Oman in April, a USC Alumni Club in Taiwan has already started. Although it is not a fully formed alumni club like the one in Oman, there is also an active group of alumni in London.
There are USC alumni all over the world, and Pritt hopes to start more international alumni clubs for USC graduates in the future.