The shortest distance between new friends is a smile
Some Fanshawe students have
travelled great distances to be here,
while others grew up just down the
street from the college. The
International Department's activities
like the Host Program and
Conversation Circles are bringing
people together from all over the
world.
"The Host Program helps to integrate the international students into Fanshawe, the student community and also the London community," explained Faith Maudsley from Fanshawe's International Department.
To get involved with the Host Program, Canadian and international students sign up by taking a personality test, which asks questions about what program they're in, their age, interests, hobbies and more. Each international student is then paired up with a Canadian student based on their answers. There is no deadline to sign up for this program, as it runs all year.
"What we hope for is that once a week, the partners will meet up together for an hour," Maudsley said. "It could be just to meet for coffee between classes, it could be to go bowling or to go shopping or to play squash — anything where they have a similar interest."
The benefit to international students is clear, she said. "It really helps our students, who can feel lost at first when they come. It helps them settle in and meet a Canadian. A lot of times what happens is they'll come and they'll just hang out with people from their own background, but we really want to integrate them into Fanshawe and into London."
This program can also help international students learn English or to minimize their accents, but it can also work the other way around, said Maudsley. "We do have a couple people who have come in and asked to learn a different language. We say it's kind of like Eat, Pray, Love," she laughed.
Weekly Conversation Circles are another way for students to get involved and meet new friends. Conversation Circles bring together second-language students and volunteers who have English as their first language — these volunteers don't have to be students, they can be from the community as well. The Circles are open to anyone who is interested in participating; there is no deadline or application process — just show up and start chatting.
"It's an opportunity for secondlanguage students to just speak without having a scripted dialogue," explained Beverly Haggerty, English as a Second Language Technologist at the Learning Centre on campus. "It's kind of nice, because they get to make lots of interesting friends."
Haggerty said she generally starts off with an icebreaker for the first few meetings. "I find after that, it facilitates itself." She said she gives each student a Bingostyle sheet with a question in each square, and this activity really gets people talking. In order to fill out the sheet, each person must approach others to ask questions like "Who is from China?," "Who drinks orange juice?" and "Who has a brother?" "It gives them an opportunity to meet other people ... it's always a lot of fun," she laughed.
Haggerty said she tries to get a mix of people to get everyone to break out of their shells a bit. "I like to try to break them up — I don't want all Chinese students sitting together, or all Korean students. I do try to separate them." In this comfortable setting with friendly people, "you see lots of nice friendships evolving," she added.
Each Circle meeting can see up to 40 or 50 people involved, she said. "It's an amazing mix. I'm going to guess that at any one time, we probably have 10 different countries represented. It's interesting, because a lot of my volunteers came here as young people from another country, they speak perfect English, but they understand the value of having something like this."
Activities like these not only help international students get a little more comfortable in their new environment, it can also be great volunteer experience for Canadian students — some of whom hope to go on to teach English overseas.
Even if it's not through the International Department, "We find that Canadian students are really helpful anyways to international students," said Maudsley. She cited a story told to her by an international student, who said he had been confused in class about a sheet that required him to list his next of kin. A Canadian student in his class immediately volunteered to be his next of kin, take notes for him — "anything he needed help with, the Canadian student was there," Maudsley said proudly.
Applications for the Host Program can be found at the Welcome Kiosk in F building and the Student Union office (SC 2012), or head to A2025 and fill out the form with some help from Maudsley herself. For more information about the Host Program, contact Maudsley at fmaudsley@fanshawec.ca.
Conversation Circles began earlier this month. They run every Monday and Wednesday, with a meeting from 12 to 1 p.m. and 1 to 2 p.m. each day. Monday meetings are held in T1027 until November 14; Wednesday meetings are held in D1015 until November 23; and from November 30 to December 7, Wednesday meetings are held in B1042. For more information about Conversation Circles, contact Haggerty at bhaggerty@fanshawec.ca.
"The Host Program helps to integrate the international students into Fanshawe, the student community and also the London community," explained Faith Maudsley from Fanshawe's International Department.
To get involved with the Host Program, Canadian and international students sign up by taking a personality test, which asks questions about what program they're in, their age, interests, hobbies and more. Each international student is then paired up with a Canadian student based on their answers. There is no deadline to sign up for this program, as it runs all year.
"What we hope for is that once a week, the partners will meet up together for an hour," Maudsley said. "It could be just to meet for coffee between classes, it could be to go bowling or to go shopping or to play squash — anything where they have a similar interest."
The benefit to international students is clear, she said. "It really helps our students, who can feel lost at first when they come. It helps them settle in and meet a Canadian. A lot of times what happens is they'll come and they'll just hang out with people from their own background, but we really want to integrate them into Fanshawe and into London."
This program can also help international students learn English or to minimize their accents, but it can also work the other way around, said Maudsley. "We do have a couple people who have come in and asked to learn a different language. We say it's kind of like Eat, Pray, Love," she laughed.
Weekly Conversation Circles are another way for students to get involved and meet new friends. Conversation Circles bring together second-language students and volunteers who have English as their first language — these volunteers don't have to be students, they can be from the community as well. The Circles are open to anyone who is interested in participating; there is no deadline or application process — just show up and start chatting.
"It's an opportunity for secondlanguage students to just speak without having a scripted dialogue," explained Beverly Haggerty, English as a Second Language Technologist at the Learning Centre on campus. "It's kind of nice, because they get to make lots of interesting friends."
Haggerty said she generally starts off with an icebreaker for the first few meetings. "I find after that, it facilitates itself." She said she gives each student a Bingostyle sheet with a question in each square, and this activity really gets people talking. In order to fill out the sheet, each person must approach others to ask questions like "Who is from China?," "Who drinks orange juice?" and "Who has a brother?" "It gives them an opportunity to meet other people ... it's always a lot of fun," she laughed.
Haggerty said she tries to get a mix of people to get everyone to break out of their shells a bit. "I like to try to break them up — I don't want all Chinese students sitting together, or all Korean students. I do try to separate them." In this comfortable setting with friendly people, "you see lots of nice friendships evolving," she added.
Each Circle meeting can see up to 40 or 50 people involved, she said. "It's an amazing mix. I'm going to guess that at any one time, we probably have 10 different countries represented. It's interesting, because a lot of my volunteers came here as young people from another country, they speak perfect English, but they understand the value of having something like this."
Activities like these not only help international students get a little more comfortable in their new environment, it can also be great volunteer experience for Canadian students — some of whom hope to go on to teach English overseas.
Even if it's not through the International Department, "We find that Canadian students are really helpful anyways to international students," said Maudsley. She cited a story told to her by an international student, who said he had been confused in class about a sheet that required him to list his next of kin. A Canadian student in his class immediately volunteered to be his next of kin, take notes for him — "anything he needed help with, the Canadian student was there," Maudsley said proudly.
Applications for the Host Program can be found at the Welcome Kiosk in F building and the Student Union office (SC 2012), or head to A2025 and fill out the form with some help from Maudsley herself. For more information about the Host Program, contact Maudsley at fmaudsley@fanshawec.ca.
Conversation Circles began earlier this month. They run every Monday and Wednesday, with a meeting from 12 to 1 p.m. and 1 to 2 p.m. each day. Monday meetings are held in T1027 until November 14; Wednesday meetings are held in D1015 until November 23; and from November 30 to December 7, Wednesday meetings are held in B1042. For more information about Conversation Circles, contact Haggerty at bhaggerty@fanshawec.ca.
