Syracuse University will welcome first-year students from 59 different countries this year.

“Everybody is new to the university,” said Carrie Abbott, director of the Office of First-Year and Transfer Programs. “Everybody is looking to make connections and new friends. And everybody is there to learn what it means to be a college student.”

But for international students, it’s common to interact more often with others who speak their native language. Programs set-up by Syracuse University aim to have incoming international students interact more with the greater SU community and those who don’t speak their native language.

Elane Granger, assistant director for student service at the Lillian and Emanuel Slutzker Center for International Service, said it is important for students to surround themselves with different groups of people.

“If (students) do not engage with others, they will not acquire the intercultural communication skill,” Granger said.

To encourage international students to get comfortable in an unfamiliar environment, the Slutzker Center organizes multiple programs. “Connection,” for example, is a mentoring program for first-year and transfer undergraduate students in which they can seek help from mentors depending on their needs.

The center also hosts an event called “Mix-It-Up,” where new students in the first month have an opportunity to make friends with diverse backgrounds.

Granger said mentoring programs help students get familiar not only to the university but also the educational system in the United States.

“Mentors are helpful to the new students in so many ways because they don’t know about the registration process or they don’t know what to do if they don’t understand homework or professors’ office hours,” Granger said.

Granger said she appreciates students who study abroad and wants to see them succeed.
“It is very satisfying to see how much students learn and change and develop and grow,” Granger said. “And we genuinely care about their experience here on campus.”

Published on August 26, 2015 at 12:02 am

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