International Graduate Students at UNC: Finding COMMUNITY

M/F:	Male/Female Speaker


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F:	It is really important as a grad student to try and devote some time and energy, when you first move here, to seeking out a bigger community for yourself on campus, beyond just your specific program.

M:	I was an international student here. At first, it’s quite lonely. You don’t know anyone. And slowly, you have to create a new network. You have to make friends here. You have to make Chapel Hill your home.

M:	As graduate students, we tend to live in a small bubble. We only know people in our own department or only those few people in our office or lab, so it’s very important to have some opportunities to get out of the small bubble, get to know people from other fields of graduate studies.

M:	Thankfully, UNC-Chapel Hill has many, many activities that can help you socialize. Sports activities. When I first came here, I joined the swim club, then the tennis club. Now I’m on the sailing team of UNC. Through these activities, you can find out more about what the UNC culture, what these—the culture of the local people.

M:	Personally, I joined student organizations. First I worked with some organizations on campus as a volunteer, and then later on I was leading a student organization at the school of public health. So my advice is to get involved with student organizations on campus.

F:	Based on my own personal experience, I think one of the best ways to do this is to try and offer your services in leadership positions in offices across the campus. And one of the easiest ways to do this, as a graduate student, is to work with GPSF. So GPSF is the Graduate and Professional Student Federation. For me, it’s been a wonderful way of making friends with people who I would not normally have met outside of the geography department.

M:	Every year, GPSF organizes many different type of social and educational events to promote interaction among the UNC graduate and professional student population.

F:	Another great way of trying to get to know people across the campus is to attend the many events that take place in Chapel Hill, usually in the afternoons or the early evenings. Research presentations, like a panel discussion, or some of them may be lunchtime workshops around a particular topic. And that’s a great way, as a graduate student, to meet with other grad students who may have similar interests to you but who are in different programs or different offices across the campus.

M:	Off campus, there are many other options for you as an international student, or even for your family. For example, like TABLE. It’s a very good organization in Carrboro, where my wife and myself volunteered in there with them many times. And Habitat for Humanity and dozens of organizations available in the area. It’s very easy to join, and it’s very good because you serve the community while also you make networks and you learn about the culture and some other challenges or issues within the community.

F:	As for myself, I have a large Malawian community over here who are American citizens but they’ve got various projects in Malawi. So I made sure I knew where they are, and they helped me a lot to make Chapel Hill as my home.

F:	And, finally, I would say that there are many different kinds of social events that also happen frequently here at UNC. So one that comes to mind is the international coffee hour, and that’s really a great one-hour session that happens every month during the semester to bring together diverse undergraduates and graduate students who have an interest in global travel or in learning about cultures outside the U.S. And, for me, that was a great way to build some friendships when I first moved here to Chapel Hill.

M:	Nobody told me these things. You have to find out on your own that you are in an academic environment that is also more than an academic environment. It is important to do well academically, but also to gain more from UNC campus.

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