SpringfieldNewsSun.com

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Eshini Panditharatna's mother is taking her daughter's first day of college rather hard.

As her 18-year-old daughter settles into her new life at Wittenberg University, Panditharatna's mother will be boarding a plane home — to Sri Lanka.

"She is very upset," Panditharatna, a biochemistry and molecular chemistry major, said.

On Thursday, more than 33 international students waved goodbye to parents heading home to 20 different countries as the class of 2012 arrived on campus.

Both Panditharatna, and sociology major Cynara Manandhar of Nepal are combining their first day of college with their first time in the U.S.

"It's kind of hard, but I'm slowly adjusting," Panditharatna said. "The people are really friendly (at Wittenberg). It is comforting when you are so far away from home."

Saying goodbye to her little brother was exceptionally hard for Manandhar.

"But we can talk to each other (through) the Internet," she said.

Placing family photos and other reminders of home around her college dorm is how Indira Munroe, 18, of the Bahamas, plans to stave off her expected homesickness. Like Panditharatna, Munroe is the last child to leave home.

As new visiting faculty member Jie Wu of Beijing watched the students arrive "full of expectation and energy and also confused," she remembered the day she arrived as an international student at Washington University in Seattle.

"That was nine years ago, very sweet memories," she said, as she looked across the campus lawn and the students scrambling about. "Now here I am, welcoming these students to Wittenberg."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0347 or kmori@coxohio.com.