Leaving your home and moving to a new place to study follows up with a lot of struggle. Settling in the new destination, mixing up with the people residing there and making yourself habituated with the new life is quite hard, especially for the international students. This is why the Notre Dame University of USA emphasizes so much on conducting their international student orientation.
Leah Zimmer, director of International Student and Scholar Affairs (ISSA), stated that the international student orientation is arranged every year to make sure the students who are coming to Notre Dame does not feel left out by the time their classes start.
Zimmer said that it is really exciting to see how these new international students who are so full of talent and curiosity comes into the new place and let their perspective flow for bringing the best out of the university and themselves as well.
Students coming to the university always find it difficult to interact with others and build a connection. Here this orientation is filling up a gap by letting the students know about the traditions of Notre Dame and also listen to the people who have been experiencing the same by living there and studying.
This orientation not only spreads a positive message amongst the students and welcome them warmly into the new environment. But it also provides them with numerous valuable technical and general information as well as the responsibilities a student should take care of for being a J and F visa holder. Apart from that, other details on how they can open bank accounts and a set up for a United States phone account are provided as well.
These are some of the basic information everyone will require to know while they move to the United States. Apart from that, ISSA also selects a group of senior students who will conduct the interactive activities for the new students and will guide them through every venture of the procedure. Also if they freshers face any sort of complication, the appointed seniors are supposed to be contacted.
The role of seniors is not just over after the orientation is over. They are responsible for creating a familiar and comfortable environment for the new international students to survive in as well. Also, they will be making the new international pupils familiar with all Notre Dame’s events and traditions as well.
He Duan who is a senior and born from China but grew up in Zimbabwe stated that during his freshman year this orientation program had helped him a lot to get the essence of Notre Dame and also to mix up with all the people around him.
He said that it is really difficult to leave your family and move to a new place while you are studying, the anxiety really disrupts the mental peace in this process. But in such a situation, Notre Dame’s orientation program has helped him a lot to become familiar with his fellow classmates and also made him aware of a lot of basic information.
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