As finals approach, many Missouri Southern international students have to decide where and how they will spend their summer.

Some will stay with host families, others will return to their own countries to see family. A few have decided to make some trips around the United States.

Asako Fujiwara, senior international communications major from Kyoto, Japan, hasn’t decided where she will stay.

Her aunt lives in Chicago, and her host family lives in Carthage.

“I think I’m going to Chicago,” Fujiwara said.

She said she wants to visit Chicago to go sightseeing, but will probably spend the majority of her summer in Carthage with her host family.

Efosa Egonmwan, freshman accounting major, is from Benin City, Nigeria, and plans on returning home for his summer.

He intends to visit friends, go to movies and visit clubs during the summer. He said he may not even return to the United States after summer. If he does return, he plans on attending the University of Missouri-Kansas City, because his mother lives in Kansas City.

Iana Vladimirova, junior accounting major, is from Bulgaria and has many plans for her summer.

“I’m going to take advantage of the Spanish trip that Missouri Southern offers during the month of June,” she said.

After her trip to Spain, she wants to go to Bulgaria and visit her family for about a month.

Vladimirova will have extra time off this summer because she plans to attend school in Amsterdam next semester. The college in Amsterdam doesn’t start school as early as Southern does.

Monnicca Shanthanelson, senior biology major, won’t get much of a break from school this summer, because she intends on entering graduate school after graduating from Southern this May.

She will be attending the State University of New York-Stony Brook starting this summer and will be studying neuroscience and behavior.

Yuri Fukumoto, junior biology major, will be taking intersession and summer classes at Southern, but she still plans to have some fun over the summer. She will return home to Yokohama, Japan, after summer classes are over to visit friends and family.

She said she is excited to see them and will be back to Southern for the fall semester.

Freshman computer science major Roman Prokipchin said he will rest all summer and stay with his host family in Kansas City.

He has plans to visit Daytona Beach, Fla., and California during the summer as well.

“I will spend 10 days in California looking for a grad school,” he said.

Prokipchin said even though he’s a freshman, he’s determined to go to grad school. He wants to start looking early. He also plans to come back to Southern after the summer.