FERRUM -- Four years ago, fate plucked Mina Ayob from Kabul, Afghanistan, where she was studying at a medical university, and dropped her into a small American college at the foot of Ferrum Mountain.

Today, Ayob will join 179 other students in graduating from Ferrum College.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind for the 27-year-old Ayob.

"I don't believe I've been here four years," she said with a shy smile. "I can't believe it's over."

Ayob's journey started in 2002, when she was still studying in Kabul.

She had completed a semester of study in the mid-'90s before the Taliban took power, and another semester after the U.S. invasion. About that time, Ferrum College was looking to offer a scholarship to an Afghan woman.

Ayob was identified through a family friend who had connections to a faculty member at Ferrum. She was interviewed on videotape for the college, which then offered her a four-year scholarship.

"I said, 'That's a good opportunity. Why not?' " Ayob said.

Sasha Saari, Ferrum's director of International Programs, said members of the Russian club lobbied to help get Ayob to Ferrum, and a former student helped pay for her ticket to come to the United States.

"It was such a community effort and she's paid off in spades," Saari said. "She's just a really super person."

Ayob arrived in Ferrum in October 2002, facing a vastly different language and culture. But she received encouragement from Saari, who told her not to worry about perfecting her English but to move forward with her classes.

"It was a big challenge, the language. I could speak English but not very well," said Ayob, who these days speaks well, though with a bit of an accent. "Sasha told me, 'Don't worry. You'll improve day by day.' "

In many ways, though, Ferrum College proved to be a perfect fit for Ayob. Located in a rural area 10 miles from Rocky Mount and attended by fewer than 1,000 students, the school's isolation and small size makes for a tight-knit academic community.

Ayob made friends quickly, particularly among the other international students. She's close to students from Korea, Russia, Mexico, Ukraine, China and Japan. For spring break in 2004, she visited Disney World with a Ferrum student from Russia and three Roanoke College students from Ukraine, France and China.

She's also made trips to Washington, D.C., New York City, Boston and Kentucky.

For the most part, though, Ayob hasn't strayed far from Ferrum College, other than the occasional visit to Rocky Mount or Roanoke.

She likes to hang out with her friends, watch movies and go shopping. Her favorite foods are lasagna, pizza, macaroni and cheese, and spicy Mexican food from the restaurant up the road. She likes movies with actress Angelina Jolie.

Ayob even took a dance class one semester, which climaxed with a performance of a tap dance in front of an audience.

But certain parts of her heritage have stuck with her. Ayob has retained her Muslim faith while attending a Methodist-affiliated school. She's avoided dating, which is frowned upon in Afghan society. She lives in Susannah Wesley, an all-girls dorm, and dresses modestly.

Even so, Ayob has achieved a level of notoriety in the Middle East. After her story, which included criticism of the Taliban regime, was published in The Roanoke Times in 2003, a reporter in Pakistan wrote about her.

Another time, a person used a photo of her before a stormy sky from the college Web site and republished it with the caption, "Mina's World," implying that she'd bring darkness upon her return to Afghanistan.

"I'm a little bit afraid," Ayob said.

She wants to eventually return home to her family in Kabul. She's visited once in her four years, in 2004, when she got into an intense debate about Americans with a family member.

But for now, Ayob would like to continue her training in the United States.

She's spent her summers working at the college. For two summers she worked in office jobs, and last year she interned in the life sciences program, testing water for nutrients and pollution.

One day a week, she went out on the Royal Flush, a septic pump-out boat that cruises Smith Mountain Lake.

Today, she'll receive a four-year degree in preprofessional science -- essentially a pre-med degree.

More than anything else, she said, she'll remember the students and faculty at Ferrum College, who brought her from Kabul and offered "academic support and moral support."

She's applied for a one-year practical training visa, and hopes to work for a year at Carilion Health System before applying for the two-year nursing program at Jefferson College of Health Sciences.