listen – Student Union: Recent Episodes
VOA's Student Union
We are an online community helping international students navigate the university experience in the U.S.
Dr. Tobie Tondi is a theology professor at the University of San Diego, and a Sister of the Holy Child, who has taught international students, and has been an international student herself. Our special correspondent Zuleyma Ramirez interviewed Dr. Tondi to find out what international students should know if they want to succeed in a U.S. […]
Lee Seedorff is the senior associate director of the University of Iowa’s Office of International Student and Scholar Services, a school with over 3,500 international students. Jane Dou, a Chinese student at the University of Iowa, wanted to find out how an international advisor like Lee communicates with her many charges and what challenges she […]
America is a country where you can find incredible diversity, but also racial and cultural prejudices. In their time as international students, our bloggers have confronted stereotypes about their own country and had their own preconceptions about other countries challenged. Like we did last year, and earlier this year, a bunch of us hopped on […]
We’ve talked a lot about why Chinese and American students often don’t form close relationships on campus. We’ve asked whether one side or the other is to blame, which cultural differences might have an impact, and even whether the admissions process has a role to play in improving relationships. Dandan, who is from China and […]
Yesterday we shared the first of two recent phone conversations we had to talk about studying and living in the U.S. If you didn’t have a chance to listen to that one, check it out. In this second conversation, we start out talking about American culture, but with prospective student Vladimir on the line, quickly […]
You might remember last year we had a blast recording and sharing a few phone conversations where the bloggers compared notes from their year in the States. If you haven’t listened to those, check ’em out. They were lots of fun: Pete and Repeat are on a Boat…and Other Adventures in American Culture In fact, they […]
Azadeh has been in the U.S. for 3 years as a PhD student at the University of Maryland, during which time she hasn’t been able to see her family back in Iran. Up until recently, Iranian students could only receive a single-entry visa, which meant their visa would allow them to enter the country one […]
As Iranian student Azadeh tells me about the rumors that circulated among her friends about how to get a student visa to the U.S., she sounds like the foreign students I’ve encountered on so many internet forums. “People say that if she takes the, for example, the yellow page it means she’s going to issue […]
Before summer vacation started, a bunch of our bloggers got together (via Skype) to chat about how their experiences over the past school year – the ups and downs, challenges and victories, and what they learned. We had some fantastic conversations, even digging into a few topics we hadn’t really covered in the blog posts […]
Before summer vacation started, a bunch of our bloggers got together (via Skype) to chat about how their experiences over the past school year – the ups and downs, challenges and victories, and what they learned. We had some fantastic conversations, even digging into a few topics we hadn’t really covered in the blog posts […]