sharing cultures
William Mott
Year 11
The International Student Forum was a congregation of both local and international students representing schools that run EAL (English as an additional Language) programs.
Kyle Tran (Year 11) is the BSC International Student Captain and hails from Vietnam came to BSC in 2013. Yiting Feng (Year 11) is from China and joined BSC in 2016. Kyle, Yiting and myself were proud to represent Brunswick Secondary College at the International Student Forum event this year.
Students from all over Victoria met at a conference held in the State Library of Victoria. The aim of the forum was to identify, discuss and propose alterations and/or improvements to the various aspects of the EAL program (homestay arrangements, social integration and the celebration of cultures) as well as eliminating racial prejudices and misunderstandings within our society.
We were instructed to sit in groups of 5-10 students to discuss the various issues in schools and to share our experiences about the International Student Program. We also raised and shared various initiatives that are undertaken by different schools to improve the experiences of international students as well as identify specific areas to improve our program at BSC.
As a local student, I found the entire day very educational. It was incredibly interesting to hear the stories and experiences from people in extraordinary circumstances, who face the incredibly challenges of integrating themselves into a new culture and speak a new language. Their light-hearted accounts of stories from their culture, their experiences in Australia and at school shed new light on a group of students about whom I hadn’t heard a lot!
The day has made me more empathetic and given me a new understanding into the difficulties of coming to a new country, as well as highlighted to me the rapidly more interconnected, globalised world through the experiences of people my age. I believe the major challenges faced by international students is the attitude towards acceptance from other students. It is only natural that people have some sort of apprehension towards the unknown, and therefore an international student may feel isolated in a classroom environment. This may be as a result of language, academic skill and lesser social skills, so concerted effort is needed from both the international and local students to ‘break the ice’ somewhat, be confident and accepting toward one another and create an environment in which everyone can thrive.
I really enjoyed the day and I believe the feedback and suggestions that Ms Marinelis and the International Students’ cohort have taken onboard will result in mutually beneficial changes for the both the international and local student bodies.
You can read more about the forum in the report by International Student Program Coordinator, Vicky Marinelis.
Kyle Tran
Year 11
International Student Captain
The event was very good and it was great to see both local and international students coming together to have a say and change the future of global education. I enjoyed the interactions with the students from other schools and learned what students have done or are trying to do for international education. This gave me more experience and ideas about how, as a school leader, I can help out with the International Student Program at BSC.
Yiting Feng
Year 11
I found the day amazingly inspiring!
I got to talk to students from other schools and learned about what other schools do to support international students. I would have liked more time to discuss the topics with the students. I also established a new friendship!
