The small flags hung as banners all along the atrium鈥檚 upper floor. Down below, hundreds of students filled the wide-open space 鈥� playing games, eating delicious food, and potentially meeting new life-long friends.
This wasn鈥檛 O-Week as usual: many of the students were older, or further along in their studies, than typical new arrivals to campus. Plus, Orientation Week proper wasn鈥檛 starting for another few days. This was a first reception for the newest international members of the Dal community: undergraduate, graduate and exchange students, arriving in Halifax from all around the world.
Dal鈥檚 international student population has grown significantly in recent years; in 2013-14, more than 14 per cent of all students at Dal came from outside of Canada. International Orientation was an opportunity for new students to not only get to know Dal, but the experience of studying in Canada.
The 400 students who took part in this year鈥檚 events were also able to get to explore the 鈥檚 brand-new location: a bright, open space on the ground floor of the new LeMarchant Place. The venue hosted their first meet-and-greet to help kick off the week.
Getting to know Dal and Canada
International Orientation is more like two orientations, in many ways: from Wednesday, August 27 until Saturday, August 30, the International Centre hosted sessions for undergrads in the morning, graduate students in the afternoon, with an 鈥渆nd of orientation鈥� party Saturday night to bring the week to a close.
Topics for the sessions included 鈥渟tudent essentials" 鈥� covering everything from managing assignments to the particulars of the Canadian classroom 鈥� and 鈥渂eing an international student in Canada,鈥� which looked at topics like immigration documents and Government of Canada regulations for international students. Other activities during the week included shopping trips to pick up essentials, sessions on health care in Canada, and games on the Studley Quad.
鈥淭he talks were really helpful, talking about health services and passport matters,鈥� said Pedro Ciambra, a visiting undergraduate student from Brazil. 鈥淭hat was really important.鈥�
Pedro is a Science Without Borders student, coming to Dal as part of an intitative through the . He said of the schools he was looking at, Dal had the most attractive Computer Science program. He鈥檚 looking forward to his year in Halifax 鈥� and to winter鈥檚 snow, which he鈥檚 actually never seen in-person before.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit clich茅, but the people here are really nice,鈥� he said, 鈥渢hough it鈥檚 also been rather windy.鈥�
Halifax鈥檚 natural environment is an attraction for PhD student Yoshimasa Kubo as well. He's also keen to make it to Prince Edward Island at some point and explore the legacy of Anne of Green Gables. (A creation of Dal aluma Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne is a national icon in Japan.)
鈥淚t鈥檚 a good environment [in Halifax], lots of greens, being able to see the ocean,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd the people are all so nice.鈥�
