Meet the First-Years

Northwestern is “everything I wanted it to be and so much more,” says first-year student Alexia Sextou, a journalism major from Thessaloniki, Greece. Nearly a month into her University experience, Sextou had already joined The Daily Northwestern and Northwestern News Network. An international debate champion, she also joined Northwestern’s Parliamentary Debate Union. 

Sextou is one of more than 2,100 students in Northwestern’s Class of 2028 — a cohort of students from all 50 states and Puerto Rico, 90 countries (including Togo for the first time) and six continents. Approximately 13% of the class are international students — a University record — and more than 90 different languages are spoken by students in the class. 

“The other day I met a guy from Brazil and learned about his language and culture,” says first-year Bowie Wu, a computer science and bassoon performance double major from Austin, Texas. “There are so many different people here, each with their own interesting stories.” 

Students in the Class of 2028 come from more than 1,400 high schools worldwide. Jesse Smyth came to the University as valedictorian of Plainview High School in Ardmore, Okla., a town of 20,000, where he was an all-state French hornist and captain of the academic team, robotics team and Mario Kart esports team. Smyth wanted a school with “an inclusive, collaborative environment.” He found that at Northwestern, joining the Biomedical Engineering Society and the design competition team for Medical Makers, which creates devices that serve unmet clinical needs. 

Mariam Muhammad, the daughter of Bashir Muhammad ’03 MS, attended the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in the city’s Mount Greenwood neighborhood, where she focused on horticulture. With a background in agriculture and leadership, she was president of her school’s National FFA Organization chapter, served as a delegate for global food security issues at the World Food Prize and worked as a camp counselor at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. 

“I’m interested in education, specifically helping younger students connect with their local urban ecology,” she says. “I’m hoping to take environmental science and biology classes. With the interdisciplinary research that happens at Northwestern, it’s easy to connect your interests.”