It has begun!!! Sarah's first two days...

I’ve just completed Day #2 of my internship at Macquarie University! So far, it’s awesome. I’m working in International Student Services (ISS), which is a smaller office within the large department known as Macquarie International. There are about 8 people right in my office (ISS) and roughly 100 within all of Macquarie International. The University has around 30,000 students, and 1/3 of them are international students, so I guess it makes sense that the office is so large.

Macquarie International encompasses many different areas including: marketing, communications, admissions, etc. My office (ISS) has 3 international student advisors. Unlike academic advisors, the international advisors assist students mainly on issues regarding their student visas, and complying with the Australian government on different issues regarding higher education and studying abroad. One of the first projects I’ll be working on involves comparing the old regulations with the new, and predicting what trends we may see as a result.

My supervisor, Kim, is awesome. She is the head manager of the ISS department and oversees the international student advisors, as well as the administrative assistants within the ISS office. She has made it clear that she wants to make sure the internship allows me to learn as much as possible in whatever areas I am interested in. It’s nice because she’s allowed me to research a bit more about the different services offered by ISS, and then let her know where I want to gain experience.

At this point, I am interested in the following areas: Orientation, Farewell Function, Life After Macquarie, iClub, Buddy Program, and Diversity Week. I’ll explain briefly about each of these areas.

Orientation is pretty straightforward, and requires a great deal of planning. Orientation for the next semester will occur about a week after I’m done in the internship, but I will hopefully be involved in the preparation and planning. The Farewell Function is a mock graduation for international students who will not be able to attend the Macquarie graduation with the rest of the students. This will take place on June 28, so I’m excited to be assisting with this! Life After Macquarie is an event that takes place on the same day as the Farewell Function, and is meant to prepare international students for their return to their home countries. Tomorrow, I’ll already be working to edit a brochure that is to be used for the event in June. I already have a background in writing and publications, so this is really great! iClub is a social club for international students. The club also consists of numerous student volunteers who help to plan events and activities, especially during orientation and Diversity Week. The Buddy Program is a mentoring-like program that connects current Macquarie students with international students. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing with that, but I have an appointment with the advisor responsible for coordinating it. Finally, Diversity Week occurs at the beginning of the semester, just after orientation. I believe Cristina and I will both be working on this, as both of our departments are involved with its planning and implementation. One project that I’ll be working on for Diversity Week is planning an “Amazing Race” activity. If you know the TV show, you know what I’ll be planning…only for teams of international students!

So…as you can see, I will be VERY busy over the next 10 weeks!!! It’s great to be in somewhat of a routine each day, though our hour-long commute on the public bus and train is a bit crazy. It has rained our first two days too, which has made the commute oh-so-lovely. But, it’s still worth it, of course.

One quick note for all those student affairs readers out there – I was having a conversation with Sinead today, the woman who coordinates iClub and plans activities such as the weekly Breakfast Club. She mentioned that she always invites faculty members (or “academics” as they call them) to join in on the activities with the international students. But, it is a challenge to get them to come. I asked her about that divide between academic affairs and student affairs, and she assured me that the divide absolutely exists at Macquarie. It’s something that they want to work on…

Hope everyone's doing well!
-Sarah