international student orientation

arriving on the international student pick up day was good because i was transported to school. i wanted that. i am appreciative of that (minus the hours of waiting on top of the long traveling).

but i found myself expecting more out of their orientation/induction program. a lot more.

we went to meetings that were scheduled that we apparently didn't have to go to.
we went to meetings that ended up never happening because they weren't ready.
we went to meetings that were canceled.
we went to meetings that were a waste of time.
we went to meetings that were about fire safety for undergraduates.
we went to meetings where we were told that we would receive emails.
we went to an information fair that had little to no information.

i really want to work for them and fix this orientation. i know that part of it is that i need to accept a slower pace of information chain, but beyond that, we need some more organization.

i know that i must also disregard comparisons to the university of minnesota.

i think that if i was an undergrad, there would be less of an immediate presence of the issues. perhaps because i've been working out of college for 5 years, i've come to expect more. (and that's saying a lot because of the capcs-tastic work environment and meetings i've been attending for the last 3 years.) but this was poorly done. there are a lot of people in agreement--even a few undergrads i met today.

it's sort of how i wanted to improve nsw after my personal experience. i could see myself doing a wonderful makeover of this program. i think its necessary to do. it just needs to be worthwhile of our time. especially for postgrads.

what i learned from the orientation was that i felt i don't need to attend any meetings on campus. and that's not the intended lesson for sure.