Selling cows for tuition isn’t common in Santa Barbara, but for some international students it’s the utter reality.

The financial burden that international students from developing nations struggle with sparked the idea for the International Student Scholarship Fund. The fund was created by Zimbabwe native, Patience A. Ncube, the vice president of public relations for the honor society Phi Theta Kappa.

Ncube said when she was 15 her parents passed away and her grandmother immediately started raising money for her education. Her grandmother would make trips to the village to sell cattle and goats.

“She would sell anything and she would try her best for me to go to school,” Ncube said. “It’s been like that ever since-just one sacrifice or another just trying to get to a university.”

The scholarship fund will help students who want to “better their lives and hopefully have the ambitions to actually better their nations,” Ncube said.

According to City College international student statistics, about 1,113 students are international students. Joan Galvan, the college’s Public Information Officer, said the statistics are preliminary until the end of the Fall 2009 semester, but offer a “very close picture of countries of origin for our current international students.”

Even though the majority of international students come from developed nations, some come from what are considered to be “emerging and developing economies,” according to the International Monetary Fund’s October 2009 World Economic and Financial Surveys. Such countries include Kenya, Pakistan, Romania, and others.

Being limited to on campus jobs, facing high tuition, and living expenses, the international students have a hard time financially said Ncube.

“It’s very hard because we have to think of where to get our tuition,” international student from Kenya, Rose Mwangi said. “And at the same time concentrate and do well.”

Eventually, Ncube hopes to be able to raise at least $1,000 per student. The funding will also be directed toward those international students who are giving back to the college and who maintain a good GPA, she added.

Ncube said she received the needed campus approval from public relations officials as well as from the college’s president, Andreea M. Serban, for the fund-raising effort. She is now looking for community organizations and individuals for donations.