Cennydd Mills is a stranger in a foreign land.
Mills, whose first name is pronounced “ken-id,” is a 21-year-old ETSU student from Cardiff, Wales. He has a brother named Owain “o-wine’ who lives in Wales with his mother and father and their dog, Woosie, who is named after a famous Welsh golfer. Mills is rather into golf.
A junior, Mills is majoring in advertising with a minor in marketing. Mills, who started at ETSU as a business major, couldn’t handle the math business required, but enjoys the creative side to advertising.
He hopes to use knowledge gained at ETSU to get a job in Wales similar to his father’s, a sales director for a brewery. “I would like to go into the brewery industry like my dad, he works for Coors back home,” Mills says. “I would like that kind of job because the benefits are good, there is good money in it and good prospects.”
That is, if he can’t play professional golf.
Mills has been in the United States since August 2001 and came to Tennessee by way of the University of Tennessee. On a recruiting trip for golf, he found he didn’t like UT’s coach, but heard about ETSU’s golf program and decided to come to ETSU instead.
Being on the golf team, Mills has been up and down the East Coast, as well as to France, where he played in a tournament for Wales. In France, he stayed with a host family and learned about French culture as well as its nightlife.
“It was good to sample the different food and the way that they go about everyday in comparison to the way that I am used to,” Mills says of the French. His favorite venue for golfing is Puerto Rico. He says he also enjoyed seeing Washington D.C. as well as Florida.
The Mills family went to Disney World in Florida in 1995, and loved it. “It was nice to see Disney World because back home everyone talks about it when you are younger and everyone who has been there always says how good it is, Mills says. “I was 13 when we went so I was a little past the whole Mickey Mouse thing, but I loved the water parks and the rides.”
Mills says he misses Wales a lot, not only because his family lives there but also because he misses the culture. He lives with the golf team in Buccaneer Ridge Apartments and finds Johnson City to be very different from his hometown.
“Johnson City is very small country compared to where I live in Wales!” Mills says. “I live just outside the capital city of Wales, and the nightlife is really good there. I don’t really like Johnson City because it is a bit redneck and there are no good night clubs or bars.”
He is quick to add however, that he does like America in general. He says he has enjoyed his experiences in America and finds Americans to be nice for the most part.
“I think that Americans are a lot different to British people. They don’t really get our humor, and they are a lot friendlier than back home, sometimes the friendliness appears a little bit cheesy and fake to me, compared to home,” he says.
As a Welshman, Mills likes British humor, which he doesn’t think Americans understand. He enjoys golf, soccer (football he says,) and drinking. He likes many kinds of music, including R&B, dance music and chart music.
“My favorite singer of all time is Phil Collins,” Mills says. “Don’t laugh, he’s a quality singer!”
Mills speaks both Welsh and English, but no one here will be mistaking him for a native Tennessean.
Mills speaks with a thick Welsh accent, but he speaks well and clearly, making him very easy to understand.
“I only speak Welsh to my mum and brother. My dad can’t speak Welsh,” he says. “I sometimes speak it with my friends, but for the most part I speak English.”
Mills would like to be a professional golfer after he graduates, but he says no matter what he plans on returning “home” to Wales.

Author