Trea Tijmens

Student

“I believe in working hard. I admire people who work hard. I’m used to doing it myself.”

Trea Tijmens learned her work ethic while living on a farm in a village of 5,000 in her native Holland. “My dad is a farmer and after school and on weekends, I always helped him on the farm, weeding or harvesting,” says the 25-year-old political science major.

As a student at SMC her efforts are of a more academic nature. But Trea approaches them with as much energy and enthusiasm as she did her work in the fields. Carrying a 19-unit class load, working 15 hours in the International Student Center and attending Tai Chi classes four night a week keeps her rather busy. Most of the studying gets done on weekends, she admits.

After traveling in the United States, Trea decided to stay and get her college education here. “I always wanted to go back to school,” says Trea. “At SMC, I felt immediately at home. After two or three days, you already see familiar faces.”

Now in her fourth semester, Trea has been accepted for transfer to UCLA. But she is also awaiting a reply from Sophia University in Tokyo. “I’ve always been interested in the Orient,” Trea says. At SMC, she particularly enjoyed her Modern Political Science of East Asia class with Dennis Frisch. “He made the class very interesting, because he himself is very interested in Asia. He has a lot of experience with China and Japan.”

Trea has recently taken up Tai Chi, a Chinese system of self-defense and meditation. “I knew I was going to be very busy,” she explains, “so I wanted something to study that would also be relaxing.”

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