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New international students welcomed in the next semester at an organized by the International Student Association (ISA). The International Student Association Welcome Party took place Friday, Jan. 31 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in Whitsett Hall. The event was to welcome new international students to Pitt State and give them an opportunity to meet other students.
“This event is to welcome our new international students in welcoming in a new semester,” Meiline Robinette, senior in Spanish and finance, president of ISA. “The purpose of the event is to have international and domestic students integrate together, make some friends, learn some different cultures, and hopefully from here they can go out and participate in more ISA events.”
The event was planned by the ISA board members and interns with their advisor.
“After we plan stuff, we have volunteers here to help come and set up and they’re always really nice and really helpful,” Robinette said.
The event included a free dinner of pizza provided by Dominos which students could take with them into room 101 where there were various card and board games available for students to play. New students were also able to meet the executive members of ISA when they gave a short introduction of the team.
Students were encouraged to sit with students from other cultures to learn about and exchange their cultures.
“I hope that people do make some sort of connection with some people or have some sort of spark of interest in either some new friends or some sort of new international event or international life,” Robinette said. “We really do hope people come back together to go to some of our other events and to learn more and continue their education.”
Clement Chauville, senior in mechanical engineering, is a new student on exchange from France. He heard about the event on Facebook and decided to attend to meet new people after missing the international student orientation due to his exam schedule in France.
“I didn’t know a lot of people around the table, and I met them so it is really good way to meet them,” he said. “…you meet people and you discover the other cultures and it’s nice.”
Eric Hutchinson, senior in modern languages, an exchange student from Taiwan also attended the event.
“It’s important to hold events like these so we have a reason to gather and meet up and exchange cultures with one another,” he said. “Meeting people and an opportunity to get free food is always nice.”
Robinette hoped by the end of the night, everyone was able to meet someone from a new culture and learn something new about them.
“This is very important, and our (ISA) whole motto is for ‘building connections between international and domestic students and also in the Pittsburg community’, so something like this really is a fun way to open people’s minds.”
The ISA’s next event will be the Food and Culture Fair, Saturday, Feb. 29 at 5:30 p.m. at the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts.
