Adapting to life in the U.S. didn’t come easily to Zorica Stamenkovska at first. Hailing from North Macedonia, Stamenkovska came to TU on a fully funded Fulbright scholarship in 2024 and has since learned what it means to stand on her own in a new city.

Today, she joins four other students and one faculty member to share personal experiences and perspectives on happiness and healing at , organized by the Office of Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility and the Public Communication Center. 

This year’s TEDxTowsonU, Happiness by Design, features students sharing transformative perspectives that empower us to reprioritize, reboot and refresh our lives. Stamenkovska’s talk, Recipe for Happiness, discusses the emotions that arise when you move abroad.

“For me, this talk means finding a recipe for happiness far away from home. I tried to build a balance of dealing with nostalgia and memories from home while also finding happiness and belonging in a new place,” she says. “I am building daily rituals that make happiness a practice of life in a new country.”

Finding happiness away from home

Stamenkovska’s time in the Communication and Advocacy Graduate Program in the College of Fine Arts & Communication is best characterized by what she deems living in between and finding happiness away from home.

Last year, Stamenkovska shared her culture and cuisine with students at Around the World — an annual celebration of international culture hosted by TU’s International Student & Scholar Office and the Global Village Living & Learning Community.

Sharing her culture and reminiscing on aspects of home inspired her to explore autoethnography–an autobiographical research method focusing on the lived experiences of the author in the realms of self-identity, communication practices and more.

In collaboration with Professor Comfort Tosin Adebayo, Ph.D., she wrote her autoethnography, "Walking a Tightrope: Too Foreign to Be Fully Accepted, Too Changed to Return Unchanged," which recounts the development of a sense of self in a new world through the lens of negotiation identity theory.

“I’m interested in topics related to emotions like happiness, joy and resilience. They’re good emotions to have, but it’s also about having a balance,” she says. “Sometimes we aren’t aware that we’re pushed to be happy–as women, international students or general citizens of this world.”

Expanding our understanding of joy

Stamenkovska is blending her background in advocacy and communication with her research and TEDxTowsonU experience to bring her master’s thesis to fruition. With a focus on women social entrepreneurs, Stamenkovska is researching how women in high-pressure fields navigate happiness and joy.

“I’m in the beginning stages of my thesis, but I enjoy exploring how women are pushed to be happy by society and how they actually find joy and community in what they are doing,” she says.

Her research and support from faculty members, including Professor Sarah Parker Hughes, inspired her to apply to be a TEDxTowsonU speaker.

“Zorica’s presentation at the Communication Studies Research Showcase last spring was unforgettable. She spoke with such honesty and heart that I found myself deeply moved," Parker Hughes says, "I remember thinking, ‘This is a TEDx talk waiting to happen.’ I told her right then that her story needed a bigger stage. Seeing her now bring that vision to life is one of those moments that reminds me why I love mentoring.”

The supportive nature of the community Stamenkovska joined in the Communication & Advocacy Program helped her hone her research interests and feel confident in her academic pursuits.

“Research is for everyone. Ask yourself what matters to you and what is connected to your lived experience. What do you care about in a world that is constantly changing?” Stamenkovska says. “The right mentor will inspire you to move out of your comfort zone. When you do, research becomes addictive.”

Push through the fear

While navigating her own path in the U.S. has included a mixture of nostalgia, joy, imposter syndrome and fear, she says that she wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.

For international students yearning to pursue their passion in a new place, Stamenkovska encourages them to start now.

“Just do it. Don’t overthink it, don’t try to plan how it’ll turn out, because you’ll never be able to guess. There will be a mix of emotions, but it is a very special time in your life when you move somewhere else and you build your life in a new culture,” she says. “I promise it will be more beautiful than the fears you have in your head.”

Alumna Sydney Avelino raises the Phillippines flag on International Walkway

COMING UP!

International Education Week

A week-long annual celebration of international education and exchange from November 17 - 21, 2025, culminating in the signature event All Around the World: Languages and Cultures Festival on Fri., Nov. 21 at 5 p.m.

See the list of International Education Week events!