Befriending international students can seem challenging if a student doesn’t live in the Global Villages of Alexander or Carroll residence halls. Thanks to a new Facebook group, American and international students at NC State are now better able to intermingle and form relationships with fellow students.
The NC State Melting Pot 2014 Fall Semester Facebook group is open to all students of different backgrounds and cultures. Evi Katarina Ugrinsky, a sophomore in international studies, created the group that has been sparking connections and friendships all over campus.
Ugrinsky is a German-American student who lived in Germany until the age of 12, then moved to Cary, NC. Visiting Germany every summer, she felt very connected with Eu-ropean culture. After taking a gap year before college to teach English as an au pair in Madrid, Spain, Ugrinsky decided to help inspire others to broaden their horizons at NC State by forging new friendships with students from other countries.
She found it difficult to connect with international students because she lived off-campus. She decided to create the NC State Melting Pot 2014 Fall Semester Facebook page. According to Ugrinsky, the group is still growing and looking for more members in its online community.
“I am almost satisfied with the group, but it really needs more members,” Ugrinsky said. “I would like more people to know about it, in case they are interested in the opportunity to meet cool, new people. I just think Americans could really use more exposure to other cultures.”
There are organizations and resources available on campus, even to those not living in the Global Village, that help international students adjust to living in the U.S. One such program is the Global Training Initiative. Part of the Office of International Affairs, GTI works with the foreign exchange students at NC State from the French School of Knowledge, Economy and Management.
The SKEMA business school is located on Centennial Campus, and allows its students to work with NC State’s Poole College of Management. GTI offers social events for the-se students to meet people from SKEMA and other cultures.
As a volunteer for the GTI events, Ugrinsky found them less successful than she had anticipated. The level of awareness did not draw enough of a crowd, and the events were exclusive to the SKEMA students. Additionally, the only international students allowed to attend needed to be a part of SKEMA, making them more exclusive rather than inclusive.
“[International students] and volunteers attend to provide the SKEMA students some contact with other American students,” Ugrinsky said. “American students do not know enough about the program and there is always a lack of Americans attending the events. I found this pretty frustrating because the whole point of studying abroad is to get to know students of other cultures.”
Ugrinsky said she intends to succeed in making it easier for all NC State students to connect and communicate with international students, regardless of where they live or their major.
“Being that most students have Facebook, I created a group in which SKEMA students, other exchange students, Alexander hall members, and anybody else interested in hav-ing a good time with a mix of Americans and exchange students could finally have a way to communicate and hang out outside of classes,” Ugrinsky said.
According to the Facebook page, NC State students are taking the initiative to meet others and are bringing their enthusiasm to a social media platform that is friendly and easily accessible. Past events include dinner plans at Sushi Nine, and outings to and by a group of students from different backgrounds to Packapalooza this past Saturday.