There are more than 3,000 international undergraduates from 108 countries at BU. While each has a unique story about coming here, they all share a similar theme: leaving behind friends, family, and culture to travel to a new country and begin a new chapter in their lives.

In our new animated series “Lost and Found,” international students share their journeys, talking about what they’ve left behind and one thing that helped them forge a new life.

The series is the brainchild of Carlos Soler, a BU Productions motion graphics and video producer. It’s a subject he knows well. Soler left his native Colombia in 2014 and moved to Georgia to work on an MFA in animation at the Savannah College of Art & Design. He left his family, friends, and partner to pursue his dream. He says that adjusting to life in a city where he knew no one was hard, but that the vibrant cultural life there, which attracts artists from over the world, helped fill the emptiness he felt.

Deniz Hallik (CAS’19) traveled from her home in Ankara, Turkey, to fulfill a long-held ambition: attending college in the United States. She says she’d never imagined “how big of a change it would be” coming to Boston and BU.

Once on campus, the cultural and language barriers Hallik encountered made her feel lonely for the first time in her life. She was crying frequently and unable to get out of bed. One day, she saw a Student Health Services (SHS) poster listing the symptoms of anxiety and depression on the bulletin board on her Warren Towers floor. “I had every single symptom,” she recalls. A friend visiting from Turkey urged her to call SHS, and she began therapy and medication.

A turning point came about a month into her treatment, when she took up painting. “I didn’t even think of what I was going to paint,” Hallik says, but through painting she discovered she “felt like I could finally deal with my issues.” She says she wanted to share her story as a way of encouraging other students who feel depressed and anxious to reach out for help.

This project has been personally fulfilling for Soler. Each video took a month to produce, starting with lengthy interviews, followed by hours of storyboarding and animation. “I’m anxious to see how people will react to these videos,” he says. “They’re a way to make these students more visible and a reminder about the need to build community.”

The first installment of Bostonia’s “Lost & Found” series is here.

Carlos Soler can be reached at csoler@bu.edu. Bill Politis can be reached at bpolitis@bu.edu.