Workshops for international students
By Glauce Fleury, Contributor
As an international student, you want to apply for a work permit, but you don’t know if you’re eligible. You’re stressed with your classes because you don’t know how to organize your time. You’re applying for a job, but don’t know how to write a résumé and a cover letter the way Canadians do. If you have doubts about any of these topics, you can find some answers by attending the ongoing workshops held by the Douglas College International Office.
“The workshops are important to provide information sessions for students so they are able to transition and do well while studying at Douglas College,” says Mehrnaz Kobari, one of the International Student Advisors in charge of the workshops. The goal is to answer students’ questions and to provide resources and strategies to cope with college life and, ultimately, be successful.
To understand what the students want the workshops to focus on, the International Office held forums to listen to the students. Kobari says these forums are also used to get feedback from students who have attended the sessions. “We go over what we have done previously and how we can improve it in the future,” she says. Additionally, the workshops have some topics addressed by the staff —basically, something that international students need to be aware of and that would be beneficial to them.
If you couldn’t go to a workshop in the past because you were in class, don’t worry. This semester the sessions are scheduled during the college’s non-teaching blocks. “We want to make sure that everyone is able to attend without having to worry about any class conflicts,” says the International Student Advisor. They are scheduled to take place on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.
“Each workshop is created with a certain goal in mind, such as improving academic performance, helping with stress management, or assisting international students with renewing or completing necessary permits, so all international students should go,” Kobari says. That means they are useful not only to the new students, but to returning ones as well.
The Off-Campus Work Permit workshop is the only session students must go to, unless they do not want to apply for their work permit. “There are many regulations by CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) that students need to know in order to qualify for the permit,” says the International Student Advisor.
As you’re not required to attend the workshops, you could simply skip them. However, you will be more successful if you go. “I have friends who had troubles with a lot of things because they weren’t aware of some procedures,” says Rodrigo Meirelles, who studies Commerce & Business Administration in the University Transfer Program. “They would’ve known if they’d gone to the workshops.”
The Brazilian student believes most of the workshops address important information that students need to know to be successful in their studies and in their life in Canada. His favourite workshop was about résumé and cover letter writing. “I didn’t know how to do it for the Canadian business,” he says, explaining that cover letters are not used in Brazil. “It’s also important to remember that we have rights and obligations that we don’t know when we arrive,” Meirelles says. “That’s why the workshops are useful.
AGENDA
Theme: “But, Nobody Told Me…”
When: Friday, January 25, 3:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Where: Room 3820 (New Westminster)
Theme: Off-Campus Work Permit
When: Monday, January 28, 10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m.
Where: Room 1222 (New Westminster)
Theme: Time Management
When: Friday, February 1, 3:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Where: Room 3820 (New Westminster)
Theme: Managing Test Anxiety
When: Friday, February 8, 3:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Where: Room 3820 (New Westminster)
To read the complete agenda and the updated information, visit http://www.douglas.bc.ca/services/international-education/services-for-success/international-student-workshops.html.
