Last night in Mountainview College’s Windham Hall, a few students gathered for part three of Residential Life’s College Culture Series, which aims to help new international students adjust to both University and U.S. culture.
The event, “Connect With Other Bearcats,” focused on roommate relationships, conflict resolution and communication.
Richard Mendez, resident director of Windham Hall, and Andrea Cronkite, resident director of Hinman College’s Roosevelt and Smith Halls, presented successful ways of approaching conversations to resolve potential problems with roommates.
They acted out hypothetical situations for the three students in attendance to give the conversation topics a practical approach.
Mendez and Cronkite also discussed, with the one remaining student in attendance, how to form compromises, how to utilize resources for outside help if a resolution cannot be reached, and how to resolve conflicts that may turn up in group work related to classes.
The idea for the College Culture Series was formed last year by break housing resident directors Sara Bowlin, Jessica Moore and Tanyah Barnes.
“During our time working as break RDs, we found that many of our international residents were not fully prepared for the culture in the United States,” Bowlin said. “We created the College Culture Series to help them through their transition process.”
The series consists of a total of six sessions, all focused on different aspects of university life.
“Each of the six informative sessions is an area that we witnessed our international students needing additional assistance with,” Bowlin said.
In addition to roommate relationships, some of the topics focused on in the series are classroom culture, public speaking and healthy eating.
Along with the information sessions, the series has also included a discounted shopping trip to Bed Bath & Beyond, a social kick-off and a resource guidebook, which lists common American sayings, explains the U.S. monetary system, gives travel tips and more.
The resident directors also teamed up to start a program in the break housing residence halls this year to provide basic food samples and packages of linens and towels for international students who may not have these essentials or any American money to purchase them with.
The fourth part of the College Culture Series, “Yum Yum Kitchen Fun,” will take place on Monday, Sept. 24 in College-in-the-Woods’ Mohawk Hall. The session will focus on cooking, fire safety and healthy eating, as well as provide hands-on cooking experience.
Correction: Sept. 24, 2012
A photo caption in the Sept. 21, 2012 edition of Pipe Dream with an article about a Residential Life event, “Connect With Other Bearcats,” incorrectly stated that the subject of the photo was a student attending the presentation and that the event was held on Friday. The subject is actually Richard Mendez, the resident director of Windham Hall, and the event was held on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2012.