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From staff reports
Che-Yong Ting, an international
student from Malaysia, clearly remem
bers arriving at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln a year ago.
Overwhelmed with fear and confu
sion, he walked into the annual interna
tional student orientation wondering if
he would make it through the mass of
people and paperwork that confronted
him.
After making it through the orienta
tion with the help of many volunteers,
Ting, a junior international business
major, is back.
This time, instead of facing an
intimidating mob, he is on the other
side, taking students such as
Krishnamurti Murniadi through the
orientation.
Ting joins other volunteers, some
of whom are international students like
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himself and others who are American.
Some of the volunteers spend the
first day of the weeklong international
student orientation on the welcome
team, greeting the some 250 foreign
students who arrive throughout the
week, as well as helping them with
such tasks as obtaining student IDs,
opening their e-mail accounts and get
ting bus passes. He also escorts stu
dents around campus.
Other volunteers have the impor
tant job of being peer advisers. These
volunteers get to know the students bet
ter and help them adapt to their new
environment through continuous con
tact during their first weeks at UNL.
Murniadi, an accounting major
from Malaysia, had contact with both
groups on Monday, as the volunteers
paraded him from one station to the
next, making sure all the necessary
paperwork was filled out or accounted
for.
That included making copies of
passports and other important travel
papers and filling out personal identifi
cation forms for the university.
“It’s quite overwhelming, but it’s
necessary,” Mumiadi said.
Like Ting, many of the volunteers
at the (mentation were once in the same
shoes as Mumiadi, confused about
where to go and what to do.
“When we came here last year, we
suffered many difficulties,” said
Abhilash Singhai, a graduate student in
computer science and a member of the
welcome team.
Many volunteers remember the
helpful advice or sympathy they
received at the orientation and decided
they wanted to give that back, said
Shama Ali, coordinator for internation
al student orientation.
“Most of them say when they came
here they were helped,” Ali said. “They
want to help back.”
But the new students are not the
only ones on the receiving end of the
H
Most of them say
when they came here
they were helped.
They want to
help back.”
Shama Ali
coordinator for international
student orientation^
relationship. The volunteers meet stu
dents from around the world and learn
about different cultures, Ting said.
They also have learned a skill that is
essential for being in a place where lan
guages from nearly 100 different coun
tries collide.
“We’re learning communication
skills,” said Pooja Khati, a sophomore
computer science major and member
of the welcome team.
Ting said he has been successful in
talking to most students. Some do pre
sent a challenge, though.
“So far, I haven’t had much prob
lem with language,” he said. “If worse
comes to worse, we talk realty slow, if
that doesn’t work, we need to draw.”
The skill of communicating is
something that the volunteers have had
to pick up themselves. However, they
did go through one day of training to
familiarize themselves with the sta
tions each student had to go through
and the tasks that each student had to
complete.
The training emphasized a need for
understanding and sensitivity to the
students coming into a completely new
situation. This was one of the goals of
orientation the training emphasized,
Ali said.
1 mg thought that goal was partially
reached by the time he was done talk
ing to a few of his students on Monday.
After being confronted with lost looks
on each student’s face at the beginning
of each meeting, Ting soon helped the
students relax. He also became one of
the first friends and connections the
students had at their new home.
“After everything settled down they
talked, laughed and joked,” Ting said.
The help and friendship the peer
advisers provide will not end at die con
clusion of orientation, but will continue
throughout the semester as the advisers
make themselves available for academ
ic and personal counseling.
Activities throughout the year at
International Affairs, such as weekly
coffee, also will help the new students
make contact with the network avail
able to them. There they will be able to
talk to other international students and
peer advisers, who can answer ques
tions or help students with problems.
But die contact the students have
with the volunteers and peer advisers at
the beginning of orientation is perhaps
what is most appreciated by the stu
dents, who are searching for someone
to ease their fears and make some sense
out of all the confusion, Ali said.
“It’s so wonderful to have someone
to help you out.”