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Sophomore creates video to welcome international students during orientation

August 10, 2014

Being encompassed by new surroundings and overcoming jet lag can be overwhelming, but one student is looking to make orientation for international students more welcoming.

Her name is Rachel Poole. She’s a social relations and policy sophomore who is spearheading an effort to encourage new international students.

Poole came up with the idea to collect photographs of students, faculty and staff holding signs with inspiring sayings in different languages. The photographs will then be compiled into a video and shared on Aug. 15 during international orientation.

Poole could not be reached to share her story.

But Office for International Students and Scholars Educational Programs Manager Amber Cordell, who hired Poole and nearly 150 other student peer leaders to head international orientation, said she is “so touched by (Poole’s) welcoming spirit and creativity.”

“I think it’s a beautiful idea,” Cordell said. “I think it’s going to be so comforting for these students and welcoming from the start.”

Cordell said the video is an exemplary way of saying to international students, “‘Yes this is a large campus, and yes you’ve just came across the world, and this is your new family, and we’re going to take care of you. You’ve got us in your corner.’”

When Amanda Pinckney, communication assistant intern for the Communications Arts and Sciences Dean’s Communication Office, was going through her Facebook feed, she caught word about the project and decided to involve the Communication Arts and Sciences department.

In total, the international relations and history senior helped bolster the collection with seven photos from various staff, faculty and students.

“You’re getting more than just someone standing up at orientation and saying how great MSU is and welcoming them into the college,” Pinckney said. “We wanted to greet international students and show support. I wanted us to be a part of that, and our faculty and staff thought the same thing.”

For mechanical engineering sophomore Qilin Zhu, the first week at MSU wasn’t so much unwelcoming as it was disorienting.

“I feel real welcome,” Zhu said. “And everyone near me, most of them are the freshman, so everyone is new here.”

Zhu said his favorite part about orientation was being guided around campus and becoming familiar with the campus, which is much more sprawled out than the Chinese universities he has visited, he said.

Another difference of American universities is that although they’re also focused on four years of academic studies, they include many social aspects, which Zhu said he enjoys.

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