The increase in war, armed conflict, political instability, poverty, and other world crises in the past decade is causing an unprecedented number of people to leave their native homelands, and flee to other parts of the world as refugees (Arar et al. 2020; Polgreen 2025). Some refugees abroad who want to enroll in higher education or simply continue their education choose to become international students, rather than applying for refugee status, which is creating a new diaspora of students. Using a scholarly personal narrative approach, this study shares the story of one such individual who chose to become an international student to pursue an MBA in the United States. Her story reveals how she navigated her transition to higher education in the United States; overcame the multidimensional hardships of being an international student; and persevered through her degree program, despite facing several challenges as a “foreigner”. This research advances understanding of an emerging diaspora of people whose situations do not reflect traditional notions of student mobility and their access to higher education (Cerna & Chou, 2023).