{"id":21744,"date":"2013-05-10T17:58:03","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T17:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=21744"},"modified":"2014-11-14T15:58:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T20:58:55","slug":"student-ambassadors-ease-transition-to-fiu-for-dual-degree-newcomers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2013\/05\/student-ambassadors-ease-transition-to-fiu-for-dual-degree-newcomers\/","title":{"rendered":"Student ambassadors ease transition to FIU for Dual Degree newcomers."},"content":{"rendered":"

Recognizing the challenges that international students face upon arriving at the vast Florida International University (FIU) campus, the Office of International Affairs & Projects in the College of Business launched a special program to help one group acclimate.<\/p>\n

Offered for the first time during the spring 2013 semester, and coordinated by Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare, Dual Degree student services coordinator, the Business Dual Degree International Student Ambassador program tapped six dual degree students who had already logged one semester at FIU, to directly engage with the 140 new participants in the college\u2019s International Dual Degree program.<\/p>\n

The ambassadors, who underwent a training program, act as a resource for the students, providing information about places on campus for tutoring, clubs and organizations, events and activities, and even accompanying them around campus, until they are able to find places on their own.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Junhua Ma, Cindy Hurth, Xingyue Cheng, Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare, Bianca Beckermann, Laura Musa and Arnaud Bouniol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAlso, each ambassador had to plan two programs with a cultural, educational or social aspect,\u201d Shakespeare said, \u201cone for their group of 22 students and the other for all the new students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the activities were a bowling outing to the Dolphin Mall and participation in the university\u2019s Diversity Week.<\/p>\n

Ambassadors help because they\u2019ve been there.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI know the feeling of being lost,\u201d said Laura Musa, who hails from the Dominican Republic. \u201cI wanted to assist the new students in adjusting, support them and create unity within the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the staff has many techniques for ensuring a smooth transition—and delivers VIP-level service to the dual degree students—Musa feels the ambassadors add critical value.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe each went through the same things they are facing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Regarding the initial offering as a success, Shakespeare is already evaluating ways to improve it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A bowling excursion was one of the social events the ambassadors planned for the International Dual Degree students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe will implement it in the fall so students can benefit for the full year they are here, and make it more of a mentoring program, among other ideas,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In addition to Musa, the first group of ambassadors included country-mate Bianca Beckermann, Arnaud Bouniol and Cindy Hurth from France; and Xingyue Cheng and Junhua Ma from China.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recognizing the challenges that international students face upon arriving at the vast Florida International University (FIU) campus, the Office of International Affairs & Projects in the College of Business launched a special program to help one group acclimate. Offered for the first time during the spring 2013 semester, and coordinated by Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare, Dual Degree […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":21760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2974,2973,2975,2971,2977,2980,2972,2976],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21744"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21989,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21744\/revisions\/21989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}