By: C.A. Printup
Staff Writer
@dontwritedown
For international students at IU South Bend, it may seem like a fish-out-of-water experience.
That’s why the IUSB International Student Organization (ISO) offers international students a chance to have a welcoming community on campus.
The ISO helps international students to meet each other, and students who were born and raised in the United States to meet international students.
“We voice international student concerns and seek to promote an environment of cultural awareness and sensitivity on campus. All students, international or not, are welcome to join our group,” according to ISO’s Titan Atlas page.
“When you are an international student, you don’t really know anybody. You’re just new to the whole place, so I guess you just need a community to be engaged in,” ISO President Vanessa Sitima said. “We also learn what IUSB is all about.”
The organization will host a Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 18. The SGA President, Stephen Salisbury, will make a speech during the festivities and there will be dancing and games, according to Sitima.
“Thanksgiving is not a part of our tradition from where we all come from,” Sitima said. “So Thanksgiving is like an American thing. We are all trying to get to know the American culture so it’s like, why not do something which Americans celebrate.”
The club posts 40 people on their Titan Atlas page as being members in the club.
“I want to learn from everybody else,” Sitima said. “If I learn about where you are from, I’m going to learn about another country, so I guess I love that fact that I get to learn from other people from all over the world. That’s the beauty of the International Student Organization.”
The club is organized by the International Students Office at its new location in the Education and Arts Building. More information can be found about the club on their Titan Atlas page and by visiting the ISO office in the EA building.