So what do you think of the U so far?
Ask almost any international student this question and no matter their country of origin, you’ll get pretty much the same answer: huge. Massive. Spread out. And beautiful. “More beautiful than the pictures do it justice,” said Bethen O’Doherghty, a student from England. “It’s very green. And very hot.”
“It’s the biggest university I’ve seen,” said Keiko Matsuoko, who just arrived from Japan.
They come from all over?from England and India and Japan and Sweden. Some are graduate students, some come through exchange programs. They live in the dorms and off campus. And they have a lot to get used to.
To ease the international students’ transitions, the U’s International Center provides them with an orientation, with both mandatory and optional activities. The 225 new students received a tour of the campus, as well as help with registration and trips to various locales, such as a Gallivan Center concert, Snowbird, Park City and of course, Chuck-a-Rama.
Orientation is more than just sightseeing?one of its main goals is to help the students get to know each other. At a pizza party given after one of the campus tours, International Student Association President Viji Alles surveyed the crowd.
“You see these Indian guys, these Oriental guys? They tend to congregate within their own communities.” One of the best parts of the international orientation is the fact that it allows students to become acquainted with their fellow internationals.
“Ninety percent of the time, it seems very successful,” said Alles, who is in his third semester of volunteering.
To encourage mingling, students of different countries and ethnicities are broken up into random groups before they go on the tours. Soon different languages and accents mix as the students become acquainted. For most students, language is not much of a barrier and students who do have a problem quickly overcome it, said Junyeol Kim, another volunteer.
Many of the guides are international students themselves. “When we came here, we had a good time with international students. I wanted to do the same for new students,” said Puskar Bhandari, a volunteer. “You can make really good friends.”
And this strategy seems to work. At the party, the students line the walls of the Union’s Cork Room talking and laughing. The pizza disappears quickly. Some conversation topics drift toward soccer and the upcoming ski season. “I’ve met a lot of interesting people,” said Guy Herring, a British student.
Though admittedly different from their home countries, the students’ reactions to Utah are overwhelmingly positive. “It’s got a pleasant feeling. From the moment you come here, you feel very comfortable? you don’t feel like you’re away from home,” said Amit Pradhan, who arrived earlier this month from India.
“People are very sweet and helpful. It’s a cool place,” said Prashandi Vemuri, also from India.
But it’s not without its challenges. With just a week until school starts, a few of the students are still looking for apartments and places to stay. Others are adjusting to some of the quirkier aspects of living on campus. “I woke up this morning to the marching band,” O’Dogherty said. “I was a little scared.”