The international students’ enrollment at Colorado State University-Pueblo has risen by nearly 10 percent in the fall 2013 semester.

The rise in international enrollment is due to the university’s high recruitment efforts, especially in Latin America and the Far East.

Anais Escobar, the Latin American recruiter for CSU-Pueblo, is a CSU-Pueblo graduate who is originally from Venezuela.

Escobar recruited nine students from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela for the fall 2013 semester.

“It’s certainly been a team effort that our enrollment has gone up. We have worked very hard, and with the inclusion of Anais Escobar we have received our enrollment goal,” said Annie Williams, director of the center for international programs at CSU-Pueblo.

The Brazil Scientific Mobility Program has brought about the enrollment of 17 new international students from Brazil. The program is an initiative by the Brazilian government to provide undergraduate scholarships to Brazilian students for one year of college study in the United States in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

CIP also worked this summer with the visiting music faculty member Dr. Li Zhang and her husband, Wukang, to increase Chinese student enrollment at CSU-Pueblo.

Another major reason for high international enrollment this semester is the recruitment effort that has been done by the international faculty members at CSU-Pueblo in their respective home countries.

“We have also gotten a lot of help from our foreign faculty who have taken this synergetic approach to recruit students from their own countries. Dr. Joo recruits students heavily in South Korea, and Dr. Hussein Sarper recruits in Turkey,” said Williams. “Dr. Maa recently recruited last summer in China and Dr. Ian Brennan is making his second excursion to England next week to continue his recruitment efforts.”

Initiatives have been taken recently to provide the international students with more financial aid.

“Words cannot express how excited I am. I have always known giving a little bit flexibility in resources has helped the international enrollment to grow,” Williams said. “Dr. Brennan has also been trying to work through senior administration to make financial aid available to the international students.”

Along with the high international enrollment, there have also been expectations for the growth of the CSU-Pueblo International Students Association, which has been a student organization operating for the past 75 years on campus.

“I am hoping CISA will grow with our enrollment,” said Nishesh Singh, an international student from Nepal and the current president of CISA. “We want to do international events and promote international diversity on campus.”

The university is also continuing its partnerships with universities around the world through its study-abroad program for both American and international students.

“A new partner school is established in the Czech Republic called the Metropolitan University Prague, and we are very excited to promote this new partnership to students for our study abroad program,”  said Heidi Laino, assistant director at CIP.