By: Elizabeth DiEmanuele
The Student Success Centre and Graduate Studies have introduced new positions for 2019-2020 to support the academic, personal and professional success of international students.
“Enhancing the experience and academic success of our international students is a shared responsibility, which is why we are excited about creating a campus-wide support network around our students,” says Gina Robinson, assistant dean of Student Affairs and director of the Student Success Centre. “We want international students to know that we all care about their individual needs and are working together to get them to the right services on campus.”
Ana Pereira has supported McMaster’s international students for eight years. In this role, she helps students adjust to their new lives at McMaster and in Canada through transitional services, personal development and the International Student Buddy Program.
“Being an immigrant myself, I understand many of the challenges facing students and love helping them feel comfortable in this new place they now call ‘home’,” Ana says.
Francesca Hernandez joins the team in this role and will focus on establishing campus-wide partnerships that can support and contribute to the development and success of international graduate students.
“We want to ensure that the academic, social and cultural needs of international graduate students are met through new programming and engagement opportunities,” Francesca says.
“We also want to expand promotion of existing programs and services so that students and their families are aware of supports offered by McMaster and the broader community. We want them to enjoy a successful journey in their new country.”
In addition to programs and services, one-on-ones are also available. Andrew Staples, student success coach, will support both graduate and international students with their academic concerns, financial difficulties, transition, and navigation of university life. This position will support students on an individual basis and provide a more seamless support system.
Andrew shares, “We want to make sure students feel supported and welcomed during their time at McMaster, so we are encouraging students to ask questions and share any concerns they may be experiencing.”
Lajipe Sanwoolu, immigration and mobility advisor, can provide immigration consulting from both an inbound and outbound perspective, including international and domestic students who are interested in working in Canada or abroad.
“International students contribute greatly to our community,” says Lajipe. “It is important and beneficial that we continue to provide them with opportunities to contribute and develop themselves.”
International students provide an invaluable knowledge and perspective, both in and outside of the classroom. Lajipe’s role will support developing relationships between international students and employers, providing education about international hiring and dispelling hiring misconceptions.
Appointments with Andrew Staples and Lajipe Sanwoolu are bookable through OSCARplus.
For those interested in collaborating on initiatives to support international student success, email iss@mcmaster.ca.
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By: Hannah Marcus
Most McMaster University students have listened to a guest speaker at the beginning of class offering an exciting summer opportunity or seen a table in the student centre displaying images of “exotic” places where students can volunteer. The combination of travelling while contributing to a humanitarian cause is certainly enticing.
If volunteering abroad is something you might be interested in, the following considerations can serve as a guide for making informed and ethical decisions. A good place to start when assessing an organization’s merit is through viewing how it advertises its projects.
How does the organization frame the volunteer experience? While dolphin rides, rainforest excursions and local village tours may seem attractive, if such components comprise the organization’s central advertisement strategy, the project’s goal is likely to provide a fun experience rather than helping the local community in any meaningful way.
The depiction of local communities through exoticized imagery — a tactic implicitly disparaging of those represented — is another aspect of the organization’s promotional strategy to be wary of.
Besides advertisements, it is important to question who is running it. Is it run by the same company facilitating the trip, a locally-based non-governmental organization, community workers or locals?
Generally, if the project is planned and implemented by the company rather than a local organization within the community, it is justified to question if the project is targeting community needs over volunteer interests.
Another necessary consideration is the length and cost of the project. Given the time restraints for volunteering overseas as a student, you may wonder then if it is possible to contribute anything meaningful.
The answer lies not necessarily in the length of your trip but in the duration of the project itself. Will your few weeks spent abroad contribute towards a long-term project that will endure for several years after your departure? Or has the organization constructed an artificial project catered to your short timeline of service?
In regards to cost, be wary of organizations charging astronomical amounts. It is not uncommon for the majority of your money going towards the volunteer company rather than the local community itself.
Finally, of greatest importance, is the question of exactly what you will be doing overseas. As a general rule of thumb, if you are not qualified to do such things in your home country, you should not be doing them abroad.
More flexible labour laws and a so-called “local skills deficit” do little to address your lack of qualification and risk of exploiting local people for your own gain. There is no reason to believe a 20-year-old westerner is better equipped to build a local school, plant trees or implement a new educational program than the very individuals who know their community best, and would likely appreciate the employment themselves.
In contrast, things like teaching English at the request of the local community, completing small tasks under the direction of local leaders or simply being a passive observer of locally-led community initiatives for your own educational exposure are common volunteer responsibilities characteristic of projects grounded in a more ethically-oriented, community-centric approach to international development.
So next time a guest speaker comes to your class to talk about a summer volunteering opportunity or you come across an international volunteer poster on campus, you can take out your mental toolbox to critically assess the merits of the organization.
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Farzeen Foda
Senior News Editor
One of McMaster’s relatively new graduate programs, the Masters in Global Health, will be taking a trip to India’s Manipal University in April as part of a two-week symposium in collaboration with a Manipal University and Maastricht University in the Netherlands .
During the event, which has the theme “Bridging Different Worlds,” students will also be working on various development projects, “ranging from assessing safe drinking water in urban slums, to examining causes of infant mortality at Karkala Hospital,” said Stena Sothiratnam, a student in the Masters in Global Health program who will be going on the trip.
“It is basically a practical placement in the field during which we will be participating in research data collection for research studies that are currently in progress or will be starting at that point,” said Ryhana Dawood and Natahsa McNamara, members of the Fundraising Committee for the project, in an email.
A project in a developing nation such as India would be a valuable experience for students in this program, as many intend to apply their expertise from their program outside of Canada, noted Dawood and McNamara, who further explained that the purpose of the program “is to get students better acquainted with development work, and what exactly that entails.”
With a focus on health care, the 28 students, including nine exchange students from the Netherlands, will be engaging in projects dealing with health care systems in other countries.
This is the second year the program is running and hosting a trip of this sort.
To fund the trip, a self-defense/fitness seminar will be held on campus for a nominal fee, and depending on demand, more than one such seminar will be held. Methods to engage the residence students in the fundraising efforts are under consideration as well.
With McMaster’s renewed commitment to the revitalization of the undergraduate learning experience, an endeavour of this nature is certainly a positive step in improving the educational experience. “There is only so much that can be learned from flipping through the pages of a textbook,” said Sothiratnam.
“We hope to gain a lot from this experience and we personally feel a service-learning component is beneficial to all learning environments,” said Dawood and McNamara.
