It is the last week of what many alumni have called the “best summer of their lives.” Soon Natalia Abuladze of Tbilisi, Georgia, will be more than 5,000 miles away from where she spent a month with the 89 other cherubs. She knows saying goodbye will be painful, but for the moment, it slips her mind.
Abuladze sits in the lounge on the fourth floor of Jones Hall, narrating a story to friends. In the heat of conversation, she switches to Georgian unknowingly. The expressions of her fellow cherubs are the only indication of her mistake, before the group bursts into laughter.
The 2025 cherubs came from far and wide to share a summer lakeside at Northwestern University. Among the 90 enrolled students, nine were from outside of the United States — representing China, South Korea, Georgia and Canada.
“Cherubs is really like a mini United Nations,” Jason Wang of Shanghai and Toronto said. “There’s so many people with different backgrounds, but we all have the same united goal, which is our passion for journalism.”
While Wang said he didn’t experience culture shock, switching from solely speaking in Mandarin to English was difficult. He said he noticed how the cherubs often used the phrase “locked in,” to which there is no Mandarin alternative.
Jane Hahn of Seoul, South Korea, said what surprised her most during her month in Evanston was how welcoming fellow cherubs were.
“I’m not sure if it’s American culture or if it’s a cherub thing, but I feel like a lot of people were willing to reach out first and include everyone,” Hahn said.
Hahn added that the only thing she missed was eating authentic Korean food.
Back home, Hahn said she is used to a wide variety of cafeteria foods. She said Sargent Hall’s frequent potato and pasta dishes took some getting used to.
As attending cherubs was only her second time in the U.S., Abuladze said she enjoyed questioning everything around her.
“The main reason I wanted to come here was to go back and change the way things are in Georgia,” Abuladze said. “My passion for journalism was mainly triggered by the political tensions. Injustice is not documented enough.”
As Wang said in a Sunday Club audio project, “it’s not goodbye, it’s just turning the page.”
“If you want to be more optimistic, you can think about the fact that you have friends all over the world,” Wang said. “That’s exactly the case for me.”
