Global Citizens at Sewanee

Good evening everyone.

Waiting for my counterpart. There she is.

Andrea, how are you doing?

I'm doing well how now?

I'm good, good, well, um, thank you all for joining us this evening for global citizens at Swanee. We're thrilled to have you. I am sure some of you already know me. I am one of the admission counselors here in the office of admission. I'm actually currently working remote from home, but welcome to this session with me. I have a wonderful colleague of mine.

Andrea um, who works in the office of global citizenship and I'm going to allow her to introduce herself an share a little bit about what she does on campus and also a little bit about about the office of global citizenship.

Hi everyone, I am really excited to be here with you this evening or this morning depending on where you are calling in from or or logging in from. We're really thrilled that you're joining us inside. Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to be with us this evening. As Tim mention, my name is.

Andrea Delbalso and I work in the office of global citizenship. Specifically, I work a lot with international students. Once they arrive on campus and I also work with international scholars and I work with study abroad students or students who are preparing to go abroad. So I help conduct all the information sessions. I do study abroad advising and and things like that so.

I want to give you a little bit of information about what we're gonna do cover tonight. Actually have to take a moment and paws have to give a shout out to Mattie from Richland Ms because I grew up in Mississippi. So I am from the northwest corner of the state. I'm from a very small town called cold water but I always love to see a fellow Mississippian so I feel like I've gotta represent the home state. But to go through what we're going to cover tonight, we're basically going to talk a good bit about what it's like to be an international student.

At Swanee, so will go through some pre arrival information both for international students and for domestic students. Will also talk a little bit about arrival information. What happens is first few weeks after you arrive on campus and then we're going to talk a little bit about the first year experience for international and domestic students revolving around this idea of global citizenship. So I want to go ahead and just jump right in.

Yeah, before we jump in really quick, I want to encourage everyone that's in the chatroom too. Feel free to submit your questions. We did see in your registration form the questions that you submit it and we plan to address those throughout. But if you have questions as they come through, please feel free to submit them. If you don't see them show up right away, we're going to hold until the end to actually start responding to those questions, but you're welcome to chat those in.

And will address those as they come along.

Perfect.

So I'm going to first start with pre arrival information and I'm not sure if Mammy feel like this little hamster Guinea pig.

Fluffed out rat. I'm not really sure what to call it, but this is a very stressful time that we are all in is also kind of an exciting time to navigate these strange waters, but I want to share some information with you too. Hopefully make this less of a stressful time and our admissions Department does a fantastic job of giving you information to help you prepare to arrive at Swanee. So the first thing that we're going to touch on our this wanting sessions, I'm not sure if this is the first wanting session.

We've attended, or if you attended others, but you can attend these live like the one we're having now. You can also attend a recording of the session if you missed it for whatever reason or if your Internet came disconnected or something like that. So those are really helpful sessions to prepare you before you arrive, and then what you base once you go from being admitted student to a deposited student. Then you'll have access is something called the applicant status.

Age and this is is somewhat like a portal and on the applicant status page you will see different forms. Checklist items. It is an excellent resource to kind of keep you on track with submiting everything you need to submit before you arrive, but it's also really helpful to answering your questions. Maybe before you even know that you have them and to preparing you to arrive so the applicant status page again it will populate for you.

After you deposit, so once you once you pay your deposit then it will become live. So when thinking about specifically about international students so non US citizens.

There are a few things in the applicant status page I really want to discuss and the first one is the I-20 form, so the I-20 is a document. If you're an international student applying for an F1 Visa is a document that you will need in order to apply for your F1 Visa and you will need the visa in order to come into the United States. And I've seen many of you are already here in the US, so that wouldn't necessarily apply to you unless you were leaving and had to renew your visa.

And had to come back, but basically the I-20 form it's a form you complete in the applicant status page and you put an information like your name, the address where you want it mailed, or your email address, or things like that. Exciting news about the I-20 this year because of the covert pandemic, we're actually allowed to email you a copy of your I-20 and you can use a copy of your eye 20 rather than the original. So when you complete the I-20 form, there's a question that asks you.

Which method you would prefer again if you prefer to receive it in a hard copy in the Mail, we can do that too, but the email option is now an option. Winter exciting.

So going from the I-20 form to the F1 visa information there related, so that's why I wanted to talk about them together. So in your applicant status page we give you very specific instructions on how to apply for an F1 Visa. So if you are applying for an F1 visa for the first time, then we will walk you through the process through the applicant status page through that F1 visa form and Tim. What is the exact name of that form?

It's a international F1 Visa so that those forms that Andrew is talking about here will populate after you've paid your enrollment deposit and those enrollment deposits once they are processed as payment, the first thing that we set up for you is your Swanee email address and username so that information goes over to our IT department and they create you S1 email address and those forms will populate.

For international students, they have a couple of additional forms, which entry is highlighted here and first students that have had a global experience. You might be a dual citizen. You might have lived abroad for a substantial amount of time, or you just might be interested in international life. At Suwannee we have pre populated a form for students to participate in international orientation even if you are a USA citizen. If you have interest in that and you don't see it populated on your.

Enrollment form you're welcome to reach out to your admission counselor or myself, but yeah, these these forms are absolutely helpful that you stay on target with completing those on time.

So the for the F1 visa information again, we walk with you through that process and Tim and I can also kind of give you more specific information if you would like. If you already have an F1 visa on a dip from an I-20 from, like if you're going to high school here in the US and you're an international student on an F1, you don't have to get a new F1 to come to Suwannee. You just need a new I-20 if you're if you're unless your F1 is expiring and you're leaving the country which.

Probably will not be happening in the foreseeable future, but if that's the case, if you're a transfer student and you have specific questions you could reach out to us, or you can ask specific questions at the end.

A couple other forms to mention. The international student orientation registration, which is open to dual citizens or US citizens who identify more as maybe with a different country, or they identify as a third culture citizen there's so there's that form. There's also the friendship family request form, which is, like I said, it's designed for international students, but we usually have a few domestic students participate that in that as well. Maybe they've got family far away.

And this provides a family local that you are able to connect with that you're able to build relationships with that you share meal with, that you share a life with. And so it's a really authentic, immersive experience into our town. And then we also have the pre arrival communication form, which that let's us know if you are coming international student orientation. It let's us know when to expect you and if you were coming with you and that way we can best prepare for your arrival.

Alright I'm gonna go to our next slide and so here you can see some of our friendship families. We always have a friendship family get together during our international student orientation. And so the families. They kind of range right. Many of them are professors at work at the University. Some of them are community members that work and community businesses. Others could be staff members summer retirees summer graduates of Suwannee, so it really is a range.

Of families at volunteer for this and they're really lovely because they volunteer their time and their effort and their energy to give you a home away from home. So it's a really excellent program. If it's something that you're interested in.

The next thing I'm going to talk about is FYP&FYP stands for finding your place. Some of you may have heard of FYP others if you may have not, but FYP. Essentially it's an academic course and it starts a couple of weeks before normal classes start. So a couple of highlights about FYP. It introduces you to the domain. So to the 13,000 acres that is Suwannee.

FYP introduces you to that, so your classroom is 13,000 acres. So which is really exciting so you get out into nature and so there's.

You might be hiking. You might be looking at soil or looking at water, or trying to understand just all types of different properties about this area. Maybe you're doing a socio anthropological study of the people of the area so it isn't, you know, getting out and hiking all 13,000 acres. We don't make you do that, but it is introducing you to not just the ecology of the place that the ecology of the people and the environment as well. It also connects you with other students so you get a really excellent.

Cross section of US students who are local US students from all over the country and also international students. It connects you with a professor, sort of. Before that professor is inundated with other students in other classes. So you really get to have a close relationship. A close mentorship relationship with the professor, an learn from some of the experts in these fields.

And it helps you succeed academically, and the way that it really does this is again you have a smaller class and like I said, it starts two weeks before your other classes begin. So that means your mid term for this class is 2 weeks before all your other midterms. And it also means that your final for this class is going to be weeks before your other finals. So instead of taking four midterms or 4 finals at this, you know around the same time. For example, if you're enrolled in for classes, you would only be taking three at one time because you would be taking.

The one for this class earlier than the rest, so it's a pretty pretty great opportunity for first year students to engage with.

I just want to add one more thing to the FIP program. There is a fee associated with the program and it's I believe $60.00 and that once registration will go live in the middle of April. For deposited students you'll be able to either pay for FIP or request financial aid right at the time of registration.

So you'll be able to make that make that work.

Please.

Let's see I think I scared one slide, so let me go back there he so in going back. So we also want talk about international student orientation. So we talked about FYP and.

If you forgive me, FYP actually comes after international student orientation. International student orientation is before FYP, and so for those of you who has to mention might be interested in this, even if you're not an international perspective student. Even if your US it is in argil citizen, we definitely recommend that you look into it. Our international orientation is about 2 1/2 days and it's a much smaller group naturally then all student orientation and our goals for international student orientation.

Are basically one we want to meet your basic needs and help you get settled in Suwannee and two we want to help you build relationships.

So in thinking about meeting your basic needs, for example, we offer airport pick up from the Nashville International Airport for students. So you offered pick up on the Sunday before international student orientation, and that's free. But we basically pick you up. We bring me to campus. We help you get settled. We also facilitate shopping trips with students that will take you off the mountain to go get some things that maybe you weren't able to pack where they'd be toiletries or.

Maybe some type of linens or things like that, so we will basically transport you off the mountain and we can go to a few different places. We also help you open a local bank account so I know some students, especially international students, have international bank accounts. We also recommend that you try to open up a bank account here in Suwannee, it just makes it so much easier 'cause it's right down the road, Ann, it's local.

And it is helpful to have AUS bank account when you're a student here as well, and then we help you get set up with the cell phone. So we have a cell phone provider that comes to campus and meets with students on campus to help with that. So that's usually a really, really helpful thing that we do and then kind of going along with that. We do have a few sessions and workshops, but they're very, very few and they're really geared towards safety and security.

You know, during regular student orientation they cover a lot of information about all the University offices and departments and services. But we hit on the basic ones for safety and security. So we talk a little bit about the medical or the health care system here in the USA and your international insurance. So what do you do if you get sick in the next couple of weeks? We talk about that. We also talk about maintaining your see this status or staying in good status receivers. So how to make sure you're right one is valid and things like that.

And we touch on. We have a program on campus is called live safe and so we talk about that and how to make sure that you're safe and that not just that you are safe, but you also feel safe walking around campus and so will show you an app to download, tell you who to call in case of an emergency. And things like that.

So the second goal for international orientation really is to build relationships. And because we're a small group, we really are able to do that well. We have we facilitate a few meetings with faculty and staff. For example, there's a round table luncheon with a lot of the faculty Department chairs. So basically, when you apply to Suwannee and when you fill out some areas that you're interested in, you don't naturally declare a major. But you say this is what I might be interested in pursuing.

And so we take that information and we try to pull Department chairs from those areas to be here at this luncheon and so it's an hour and a half with faculty members and you get to talk to them in a small environment over a meal and it's really quite lovely and then we also have a breakfast with international faculty so that way you can connect with like minded international faculty members you also get to connect with other international students you have international orientation leader mentorship.

So we have just like with standard orientation their orientation leaders. We also have international orientation leaders and so students are divided into groups, typically about a four to five students each, and you have an IOL or international orientation leader. And this is basically who you are going to contact.

We know however much you need them during the first week or during the first semester or during the first year, and so this is just a mentor for you. You can ask some questions about classes. You can ask some questions about social life. You can ask him questions about food. You can ask them lots of different things and the IO else also do a lot of activities with the students. So you actually going to hike with your international orientation leader during orientation they lead a session on Suwannee.

Lingo or Sony language and Swanee traditions. Kind of from an international perspective, which is really interesting.

And then, like we mentioned earlier, you do have a chance to meet your friendship things and so we connect you with your friendship families. And then we also facilitate some activities during the first semester and the first year with your friends families as well. So if we switch to new student orientation, so again, let me go chronologically. 'cause I haven't gone chronologically with the slides, but first after your ride you have new international student orientation.

And then you have FIP and then by the time you get to new student orientation you know everything. So you basically are just along for the ride and you get to really enjoy it. But new student orientation. There is a schedule online from 2019 and so you can look at that if you would like. It's four days long and basically you have a lot of fun.

You get a lot of University information like I mentioned earlier, so if you have work study on campus for example, they're going to talk with you about what information you need to submit to HR in order to get paid for work study and how to fill out your forms for work study. They'll talk through different facilities and services on campus, so our caps, which is our counseling center, as well as the Wellness Center, they'll talk about the Career Center. I just basically.

You will get a lot of information that by this time you're not gently anymore 'cause you been here for you know two or three weeks.

Then you also really work on building relationships with other students, so I mentioned you have small groups during international orientation. You also have small groups during new student orientation. Now they're a little larger than our small groups for the international student orientation, simply because there are more students, but it does give you a chance to get to know.

Lots of different people and build relationships with lots of different people which can really make or break your first year at Swanee that relational aspects. One is a very relational school, hence the Co court style that we have for the first year that comes in for each class here and one of the big things that you do during new student orientation is you sign the honor code so the honor code is a really.

It's a really big deal at Suwannee and I think that it's one of Sony's.

Definitive characteristics, and so I'm not sure how familiar you are with the honor code, but basically it's basically everyone pledges not to lie, cheat, or still, and it basically covers everything between from your character to your decisions and also to your academic coursework, and so the entire freshman class they go to a ceremony and they dress up as you can see here.

And you actually go up and you will sign the honor code and so it's a really special tradition.

That live here.

One of the Great War facts of the honor code signing is directly after you get to go to the activities fair which has we have 80 plus clubs and organizations on campus that you can be a part of. And so right after this incredibly formal event, you get to go out and sign up for different organizations that you might want to be apart of. I see that there are a lot of great questions coming in. I'm starting to address them.

As they come in but keep sending them along and we'll be sure to get to them.

So the first year experience I'm going to talk a little bit about what you can expect your first here, and when it comes to sort of global citizenship theme so.

During her first year experience, one of our primary goals at Suwannee is your academic success. We really want to get freshman freshman students started off on the right foot, and so in thinking of academic success. Afew resources we have on campus one is R writing center to the writing center is located in our library and you were able to arrange a time with the tutor. They will help you proofread a paper go.

Over paper, they'll talk with you about style, maybe that how to organize your ideas, how to frame your paper. You can set up an appointment on line. You can go in person, so it's a resource that a lot of our students really use and we actually encourage first year students you know, during your first week before you have any papers, go ahead and set up appointments because they do get they can get busy, but that way you can go ahead and get in and you can start becoming a pro at writing these college papers.

We also have a Center for speaking and listening, and they do. They do a number of things, one of them as they have speaking competitions, but they also will help you practice speaking and so I know that some of you may have a lot of experience with speaking in public and others of you may not. You may not have a lot of experience speaking in public, or you might be very nervous to speak in public. So the Center for speaking and listening will help you work through that. You can practice speaking with them.

We also have academic tutors now that academic tutors are in different areas like physics or chemistry or biology or things like that, and so if you're struggling in one of those classes, you can set up a meeting with one of the academic tutors and go over that.

And Lastly one of one of the things that we're really proud of is integrated advising an integrated advising basically is kind of collaborative advising.

It means that we really work with students, not just you know. Advisors historically would only be focused on your academics, but we've created a collaborative advising experience where it's not just your academics, that's also your vocation, and it is your engagement outside of the classroom locally and globally. So great example of this, or or a parallel to this is our Suwannee pledge.

So I'm sure many of you are familiar with this money pledge, which says that you know if you you will be able to graduate in four years, that you will also be able to have a study abroad experience at no additional cost, and you be able to pay your Swanee tuition and fees during that semester.

During her junior year and you also would have a paid internship or research experience during your time here. So that kind of brings in what we mean by the the integrated advising. We've got your academics graduating four years. We've got your engagement, the study abroad experience, and we have your vocation right. The internship or the research opportunity. So one of my roles in the office of global citizenship is all. I also must study abroad advisor.

So I work with students to help them identify programs that will benefit them academically, will benefit them personally to go bro and to get that great experience. So that's something that international students and you S students both have access to. An should start thinking about their freshman year. So even though you might not go abroad to your junior year, you want to start thinking about it your freshman year and start thinking about what type of experience you want and what classes you might want to take.

And so I always say, hey come talk to me as soon as possible if you want and we can chat through how to plan before you go drug.

So that's an information about the integrated advising these students here. They're all wearing gowns. I'm not sure if you are familiar with the order of the gown, but it's a really big deal at Sony. Is very hairy. Potter S in the sense that you will see students on gowns, riding bikes across campus, and they were their gowns with a lot of pride. But the order of the gown it's with stab Lish. In 1870, three and it's our most traditional Honor Society, and you can get in as a sophomore or as a junior.

Or as a senior, depends on your GPA and actually 70% of our international students are in the order of the gown, so they're really high achieving. But with That being said is definitely something that it's a very unique tradition of Swanee. I hope all of you will be in it one day.

So the next, the next thing I want to talk about with the first year experiences support from our office. So we have five staff specifically devoted international students and then we have.

One South who is solely study abroad, and then I guess three of us who also represented abroad. So if you have us, do we kind of do both? And if you will, but basically in our office are Dean is Dean Scott Wilson and he is a study abroad advisor as well as he's a DSO and he works with international students and he does a lot of work with Chinese programming as well. That's where his primary research area is and he is a politics professor so he wears a lot of hats. And then.

We also have myself and I work with study abroad, advising also international students and the PDS. Oh, and the arrow and I Co. Teach a class with Scott for study abroad students as well. So that's something that we have a global citizenship class for students who are going abroad as well As for students after they come back into the US for their reentry.

Another staff person in our office is shawnese ISM and she is our office coordinator and she primarily does study abroad, advising and then we have added Colbert who is an attorney and so she works with. She primarily works with faculty, but she works a lot with students with visas, so she is someone that you will definitely love talking to if you're planning on going abroad and need a Visa, and we have a new person joining us Marcus Murphy, who will be working with international student services an with Chinese initiatives.

And last, but certainly not least, we have our lovely Tim Neal, who works in admissions. But he also works with our office as well. So we have a really close relationship with admissions to help the transition be as Seamless as possible for students.

Yeah, really quickly.

How common is it to have an immigration attorney on staff at a University for students to have access to?

So that is incredibly rare, so I have worked at a number of about 6 different universities and this is the first one I've ever been part of that has won an immigration attorney, especially a small college. And Abby is mean she is indispensable. She does so much great work and so.

Um, she can work. She can answer questions regarding a lot of different topics she worked up in New England for awhile with with immigration attorney work and she's been here for a number of years now. And she also does teach too. But yeah, that's definitely a tremendous resource and we are very, very privileged to have her here.

So we also have an going orientation sessions for international students, usually the first four to six weeks, and these can be on, you know.

Again, when you first arrive at Swanee, it's a little bit overwhelming. The amount of information that you receive and let's just be honest, you don't want to listen to a workshop, you want to hang out with your new friends. So we kind of circle back to some of these key issues that we want to make sure that you understand international student insurance medical care in the United States, we discuss thriving at Suwannee because at this time you might start getting homesick. You might start.

The experiencing some culture shift some culture transition. Whether your coming from you know internationally or whether your coming from Washington state or New York City or any place like that. So we do touch on that as well. We talk a little bit about internships. We start early so we start talking about internships and how best to prepare for those and to start looking at those and applying for those. And we also introduce you to certain offices.

On campus as well.

We have a weekly international lunch table and this is one that I love. This was I cannot take credit for this idea, but I love supporting it and we have it weekly and it's just a great cross section of all types of students, international students, their roommates. It's US students, it's US faculty members, international faculty members. It's all types of people who come, and we have lunch once a week together and then we have a couple of themed houses so.

Swanee we have several themed houses and what that means is you basically live in a certain area with people who have the same interests.

So we have a greenhouse. Let's focus on sustainability. For example, we have a writing Alesis focused on writing and creative writing and things like that. So we recently have established an international theme house and said this is for anyone interested in being a global citizen, and so that's really exciting, and so you can't apply for that your freshman year. But you can apply for it after that. Or sorry, you cannot apply for it now, but you can apply for it.

Around this time next year, so during the spring of your freshman year you can apply it to be in it as a sophomore. We also have an Asian House, so that's another great opportunity for students who want to really engage with an internationally themed house as well.

The other aspect of the I want to go back just one moment because I left something off one of the things that we do with the office of global citizenship. Two is we support that you received from us. Some students don't go home over breaks, so usually have a fall break, liver, Thanksgiving break, a winter break, and around that time you know, we've noticed that students, while they love them out and they want to get off of it so.

We try to take them to nearby cities, so we've been to the US Space Museum in Huntsville, which that. And that's all, Dammit Alabama. That might sound boring, but trust me, it is not. It is fascinating, so it's really interactive and you feel what it's like to be in space. No gravity, just some really cool things. So we do that. We've been to the zoo in Nashville, TN aquarium in Chattanooga, so we've been to a lot of different places and we also give students when we go to these places, we give students a chance to.

Hum.

Go shopping there little more, you know. Be able to kind of do that kind of thing as well as go to museum or zoo or or something like that. So those are things that we do and anyone is welcome to come on those trips. We also do some regular trips or as needed tricks just off the mountain to go shopping too if that's necessary. So that's something to know.

And then the other. The third goal from the first year experience really is to build those relationships with their fellow classmates 10 mentioned earlier. After you sign the honor code, you go, insightful organizations, and that's what this picture is. This is actually a Mcclurg Dining Hall. This is our dining Hall. It's actually. It's absolutely beautiful. For those of you have never seen it, and so you, any club that you probably imagine. If you can imagine it, you can start it. We have signups for it, so we have student clubs and organizations.

Multicultural ones that we have. We have the OCC you at the Organization for cross cultural understanding. The Asian organization Ola, which is Hispanic and Latin American and a Casa which is African and Caribbean Students Association and those are just the multicultural. We also have a Japanese Association so we have a ton of other clubs outside of that. There's just a number of options. Whatever your interest might be, we have a WhatsApp group, especially for international students. According to your class year.

Because of the the cohorts, all experience, we also have first year student event during Oregon. Sorry, not during orientation, but right after orientation, which is really exciting for students. So it's for our first year international students. But then we bring along US students as well. 'cause like I said, we've had several that come to orientation and they come to. And then we also have upperclassmen students that comes. We get a really big bus and we usually go to a city. And last year we went to a baseball game in Nashville.

I don't know what we're gonna do this upcoming year, but something probably.

Wonderful, I'm sure it will be an so it usually includes food and just some type of activity, but really the goal of it is to help you get to know people and so it's just a really lovely event and we usually do it the Friday right before your classes or right after your classes have started. And then many of your academic courses there really focused on group work and so even that might sound odd to put relationships with fellow classmates from academic courses. Yes, our courses are really designed to be interactive.

And to be collegial and to be discussion centric. So you might meet your best friend in your biology course your freshman year. Who knows? Because they really are designed to be collaborative, so you have group work. You break into small groups a lot during your courses, like during that class meeting. And so that's something that you can look at to really build the relationship with your fellow classmates.

And at this point I am finished with the slides, but I want to turn over to Tim in case I didn't cover something completely or if there's something that I need to touch on more.

There are a couple of questions that have come in have been wonderful, so thank you students for submitting those. Andrea, I was wondering if you could first start.

Obviously there is a global pandemic happening right now around COVID-19. When did we as the office of global citizenship, office of global citizenship start having that conversation and two what have been some steps specifically one question about study abroad students. What did we do as a University with those students that were abroad this spring? And how are we looking ahead to the fall?

So it's interesting we we just had a staff meeting this past week. I think about kind of just to regroup now that classes have started back online at Suwannee. So as I'm sure you all know, most universities in the US because of the COVID-19 pandemic have moved to online instruction and so Swanee has also moved to online instruction as well. But our office, you know our conversation was.

We actually feel like we really or proactive in handling the COVID-19 situation, so you know, working in global citizenship. We were not our lens, it's so broad. I mean our lenses, the world right? And so especially as I mentioned Dean Wilson, who is the director of our office. His primary interest is in Asian studies, and so he spent several years in China and COVID-19 started in China, so he was well aware of what was going on, kind of before.

It got to the point where everyone started kind of freaking out I. I would be honest in the States and so we made a lot of productive decisions with students. We started communicating with them very soon, especially those who are currently abroad. To say hey, this is going on. Also their study abroad providers. We're starting to have those conversations with them and so we got all of them. Basically back on a plane and back in the USA as quickly as possible, especially once.

The COVID-19 once on President Trump initiate the travel ban for the Schengen area countries, 'cause that's where a lot of study abroad happens and so we wanted to get them back now on campus so.

Let me actually, so that's with study abroad and how we handle the situation with them being abroad now those students are all back in the US and they're all attending courses remotely for their study abroad experience, so they are going to complete their courses remotely will be the first one to say that is not an ideal study abroad experience, but I doubt any of us expected a pandemic to happen.

But what is important to know is that they are all safe there all back there, all healthy, and they're all going to successfully complete their coursework for this semester. They will not fall behind.

The second thing that we really have done on campus is and to be honest, I don't know many other universities have adapted such or adopted such a care model in the sense that students have been allowed to petition to stay on campus. Are international students the majority of them 85 to 90% of them are still here on campus. They were allowed to stay, and then we also have some US students who decided or petition to stay on campus because.

It was too challenging to go home or they felt more safer, more secure. On campus. They were also allowed to stay and then we have a meal plan in place. We sent out for international students. We send out an email every single day for two weeks to just update them to say, hey, you know we're getting a lot of questions, you know, as a library going to be open, are we going to be able to have work study? Are we going to or are we moving to online classes? Are we able to check out our textbooks? How do we get textbooks? We don't. We don't buy your textbooks any quality you can think of.

We're asked so we started a weekly, not weekly, a daily email. That said, Hey.

Here are the things that we want to talk about. Here are some of the questions we don't. We might not know the answer, but we are on it. We are working on it, were talking to the people to make his make those decisions and we want to communicate with you as clearly as transparently as possible. So we did a daily daily email for them. We also did a frequently asked questions page, a COVID-19 FA Q Page specifically for international students and we recently created that and that.

Because we took out the information from a lot of the emails that came out and so we put that into that page for the students. So in thinking of moving forward. So that's kind of the state of our current situation. So all of our study abroad students we were able to get back into the country and then and that includes we had some we had a couple international students that were abroad too and we had to move it, move fast and get them get them in the country. And that was really important because you as citizens.

Despite you know closing borders, for example, they could still come into the US because there are you a citizen. But if you're an international student, if you were an international student or a foreign national and they close the border, it didn't matter if you were from her Wanda and studying in Chile.

You couldn't get back into the country if you were not AUS citizen, so that was really important for us to be able to get our international students back.

If they need to get back because of the travel bands.

I'm moving forward, so we have been very transparent with our students who are studying abroad for fall semester. So an summer. So at Suwannee, students study abroad more commonly in the fall then in the spring and so this coming fall we have a large number of students going abroad and also this summer this summer programs. They do not. Many of them do not like they're going to run, I just it's just with the way that things are in the world. It's too dangerous. It's too risky. The fall we still don't know.

But we are advising students.

In the best way possible. So basically we are encouraging them if they're willing to go abroad in the fall to defer to spring, and if they don't want to defer to spring, were encouraged him to pick countries that we think will bounce back the quickest from COVID-19.

So, uhm, you know if a student, for example, and these students are all juniors, right? They wanted to go abroad during their junior here. I'm sure that if they can't go abroad during the spring semester, and they they can petition to go abroad their senior year, and I'm sure that something that we would look at based on this pandemic and we would make decisions on those. With that in mind, because no one asked for this to happen. And it just kind of came into our laps. And so we have to be flexible.

Will it be decisive?

Thank you for that, thank you.

Um, a couple of questions I came in I saw so I'm just gonna start approving them as they come in. So one was around FYP and moving back the date for registration to open. And quite honestly it is not common for RFYP nor are pre registration to fill up within the first day, let alone the first couple weeks. FYP can handle up to 121st year students and pre can handle close to 210 students.

In the first year class, of course, if you're part of a fall team, check with your coach to make sure that you can actually participate. In those. Traditionally are international students arrive on August 9th.

Around that we have a three day orientation and then they all go on to FYP so I know there are some questions about the difference between FYP and pre finding. Your place is an academic course, FYP is and so it it lasts for 10 days from middle of August 2 right before new student orientation. I think I shared a link to the new student orientation page and also to the office of global citizenship site where you can see both of those.

But FYP in those ten days, you're doing about half a semesters worth of work for a rather cheap price. The cost of FYP is around 60 US dollars. It's quite reasonable, and that covers your books and supplies for that course. After those 10 days your meeting once a week through October, as Andrea mentioned, and you'll rap that course up in October. What's neat about it is that everyone in their cohorts are studying and reading from the same book.

But they might be looking at it from a completely different lens than another cohort. So once those registrations go live in middle of April, you'll be able to select if you'd like to participate in FIP or pre and you will move forward. Their pre also does have a little bit of a higher cost as we waffle train all of our student leaders for that program and that is $210. There is also financial aid available for.

That program

So another question that came in was, uhm. What are the most popular places for Swanee students to study abroad?

And you want to take that.

Yes, so I would say definitely Europe which is a continent. I understand that, but it's, uh, that's definitely where most of our students choose to go. Um, Italy is very popular. Spain is also very popular. We run a France program, so we have a few Suwannee in.

Name of country programs? So those would be led by spawning family member to one is Sonian Spain and so that one so that's why we have a lot of things that go to Spain not just with that program, but with other programs. Swanee in France we have European studies and that kind of does a little tour of Europe. So they go to Germany. They go to England, they go to us different places with that too. But I would say England is pretty popular. France, Italy and Spain all top my head will be the top four and then of course we got you know.

Several students go to Ireland. We have a good number of students that go to Africa, just different countries. They're too so it really. I mean, Gosh, we've got programs in countries all over the world, but Europe is definitely the most popular and the.

And so the.

He

And then of course we got, you know, Australia and all these different places do in South America, but something we want to ask you when you talk to study abroad advisor, we ask you what your goals are for setting abroad, you know and there's a lot of things that you can talk about or choose. And so when students I love it when it comes to me and says I don't know where I want to go. But I know what I want to accomplish. This study abroad that's like amazing just because it helps direct a student to the best option for them to satisfy their learning objectives for study abroad.

You actually answered a question as it came in so particular programs in Africa, or it was just. Are there programs in Africa and then some computer science programs? I know that actually one of our international students from Nepal is interested in going on the DS program. Do you want to mention that for computer science student?

So computer science, so um, made us a great question that we actually computer science is one of the majors I advise, and so there's a DS would stand for.

Danishes International Studies. I think they, uh, they have a program in Copen Hagen and then also in stock home. And so those are going to be some good options for computer science. The one in Copen Hagen is a really good option for computer science majors. And then there's also a great option in Russia for computer science majors. And then I mean let's Ireland's got some really good good options.

Australia's got some really good options and those are just off the top of my head so those are just there's a lot of excellent computer science courses, another different locations and was even.

You know better than that, is the fact that our computer science Department at Swanee really wants to work with students to study abroad, and that's really helpful. I just see the question about programs in Africa. Yes, there are several programs in Africa.

I'll put on there the out actually put a link on in the chat to our study abroad locations, so that way you can look in there and you can see all the different places that we that we go so you can see all the different different ones.

Hum awesome, so um some of the questions that have come in about.

Can you go abroad for multiple semesters? Anne. How easy is it for credits to transfer back to Swanee?

So yes, you can brought go abroad for multiple semesters. However, this one he pledged only applies to one semester. So what that means is that your institutional aid would only apply to one semester abroad. Now students who are in certain categories, they might find it easier to go abroad for a second semester. There are additional funding opportunities for students who might be setting a critical new language. You might be program or Pell eligible.

On things like that, so those students, uhm, they can look into going abroad for a second semester, an possibly find the funds in order to do that. So it's not impossible, but it is going to be challenging to find the fund for that second semester. Now if you're a full pay student, it doesn't. It doesn't matter, you can go abroad as much as you want. It's just that institutional aid will only apply for one semester.

And then the study abroad credits transfer easily to Swanee if it's an approved program, yes, and you're only allowed to go in and approve program. So yes.

And there are 200 approved programs, so by the time that you're actually going abroad in your junior year, you've already declared a major. You know what you're studying, and so going abroad is more about enhancing your education rather than figuring out exactly what you want to study during your time. Couple of questions that have come up not related to study abroad, but when I answered them, environmental program, are we offering a virtual program? Yes, we're offering one. It's actually next Friday, so if you go to virtual.swanee.edu.

You can see a full list of virtual programs that we have. We have zoom tours going live next week. Actually, Matei from hungry is going to be doing one of our zoom tours starting next week where you'll be able to ask him questions.

And you know all of that we have, you know webinars like this. We have student panels. We have one on one chats. We have panels with the Career Center. There's a lot for you to do to engage with us, from far away, and we hope that these virtual options while we would love to have you on campus. and I think Andrea would echo that statement, we would love to have you on campus. We hope these virtual options can really help you either make your decision to attend Swanee or.

Come get you excited about coming in in August, so is there a dress code on campus? The simple answer is no.

With the common misconceptions of Swanee is that we have a dress code. It is not a dress code, but there is a tradition at Swanee that you will look nice for class in that changes drastically depending on the course you're taking. English Department might be a little bit more formal as you're delivering a presentation. Delivering prose or poetry, but if you're out hiking, the 13,000 acre domain you might be in jeans. You might be in shorts. You might be in your raggedy clothes.

Whatever, um, all the faculty really, truly care about is that you have an interest in that subject, not necessarily what you're wearing to your classes.

That being said, This is not the kind of campus where students just roll out of bed, throw on sweats, and go to class. There is a much more professional attire associated with life. It's 1 E and it is really good preparation for jobs interviews. Having appointments with faculty or staff and getting you ready for the quote, unquote real world. Even though college is definitely part of that.

I would say to that many students do we mentioned the Downing earlier and many students will wear their gowns to class just kind of as a source of pride. You know 'cause they worked really hard to get it, so you will see some of that on campus as well.

And I want to invite more questions if they have. If you have questions, please feel free. I know we just had a couple minutes left.

Um, we're certainly happy to answer those questions as it relates to COVID-19 and issues related to Visa and travel restrictions. We have created international incoming international FA Q document which I'll share with you in the links below so that you can see what sort of options we are exploring. Options for online programs for the fall semester. For students that would not be able to make it to campus due to visa restrictions or travel restrictions.

Um, so know that we are thinking that far ahead where preparing. I'm working closely with Andrea and Scott and Abby in the office of global citizenship to make sure that you're prepared.

So Andrea, is there anything else you you think we should add?

Now I think we think we covered a lot of things.

Looks like, um, there are no more questions, So what I will do is I'll provide my email address and andrias email address. We hope you enjoyed this session, no matter if it was early in the morning for you or late at night or just dinner time. We hope that you were able to really take everything out of this session that you could. Of course we didn't answer everything, so please feel free to share those questions with us so.

Thank you all so much. We hope you enjoyed it and will talk to you again soon.

Thanks y'all bye.

Bye bye.