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Usha Nand Sellers (India, J'57, G'58, J'84P)

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When Usha Nand Sellers arrived at Tufts University in 1953, she was one among relatively few international students on campus - thirty, to be exact - and as far as she knew, the only student from India.

"I graduated from high school in New Dehli and came directly to Tufts to begin my undergraduate studies as a sixteen year old," recalls Sellers.

Her mother and father, a physician and an educator, respectively, "were very forward-looking for their time," and among their five children, "didn't want to discriminate between the boys who went abroad [to study], and the girls," says Sellers. Her brother, Dr. Prem Prakash (D'53), had recently graduated from Tufts Dental School, and he highly recommended the university upon his return to India.

Her brother's recommendation brought Sellers to Tufts, and her twin sister, Pushpa, attended nearby Wellesley College. During Sellers's first year at Tufts, 1953/54, the Institute of International Education reports that India had the lowest percentage of female students in the United States. Her presence at Tufts is extraordinary, considering that few internationals - let alone females - arrived in the United States on a student visa. Nonetheless, the adventurous and strong-minded young Sellers excelled as a student at Tufts.

Sellers was very involved on campus. In addition to her passion for academics, she was active in sports, playing badminton and field hockey. She also worked as a student assistant in the Undergraduate Admissions Office.

Sellers reminiscences that since there were "very few of us [international students] in those days," she helped found the International Club to promote a dialogue between international and American students. The Club also provided an outlet for Sellers and other internationals to deal with so many "new things in America," she says. One of Sellers's favorite International Club events was the annual cookout, which often attracted a large segment of the student body to try foods from around the world. Sellers recalls a Shish-Kabob cookout in spring 1956 that was so successful the Club ran out of food (see photo above).

Today the International Club is still a popular student-run organization. The Club's week-long Intercultural Festival includes food, dancing, cultural performances, and a fashion show that capture of essence of various different countries.

"I have very, very happy memories of Tufts and my classmates that I met," says Sellers. "They were amazing. We [international students] never felt as outsiders. The students were so welcoming and so warm. It was also a place I really grew up."

Unable to travel home during academic breaks, Sellers remained on campus. One December over winter break, she saw snow for the first time. "I tried to catch it like a child," she retells. She also remembers being impressed by the black and white television in the common room of Hodgdon Hall, where she watched the "American drama of the McCarthy hearings."

"I had every intention of returning back home [after college]. But then I met my husband at Tufts," smiles Sellers. During her junior year, she met a senior student, William Sellers, at a Student Council meeting - the 1950's version of today's University Senate. Their first date was at the on-campus coffee shop now known as Brown and Brew. After Sellers received her master's degree at Tufts, the young couple married in June 1960 and moved to New York City, where she gave birth to the first of four children.

The Sellers family eventually settled in Reading, Massachusetts, where child rearing and a work career in academia continued simultaneously. Subsequently, Sellers returned to school and completed her Ed.D. at Boston University in 1987. Keeping with family tradition, one of her daughters graduated from Tufts in 1984.

Today, Sellers finds herself back at Tufts, this time in a professional role that strengthens the university's ties to its alumni, as well as to the international community. She became director of the Tufts Travel-Learn program in July 2000, and in collaboration with the Tufts University Alumni Association, she launched the program in 2001. Over the years, Sellers has been a strong supporter of the University and its students, including international students. While Sellers was the only student from India in 1953, the situation is quite different today; in fall 2010 there were forty undergraduate students from India studying at the university. She sees her support as something she can "return for all that Tufts has given me."

By Sellers's long-term connection and commitment to the University, she ensures that international students will continue to be a dynamic part of the Tufts community.

- Profile by Lisa Hayden G07 and Laura Tillery G10.