Welcome to Temple University. In this video, we will share how Temple supports our international students, and hear from a few of our current students about their favorite aspects of life as an international Owl and how our offices have helped them throughout their temple journey.

My name is Leah Hetzell and I am the Director of International Student Affairs. Today I'm joined by Marena Ariffin, who's the Assistant Director of International Student Affairs. We're a team of two staff members and one of 10 offices that comprise the Office of International Affairs at Temple University. OIA promotes internationalization efforts at the university and facilitates both intercultural learning and global exchange. We also have a full team of advisors in ISA who support students on immigration related matters.

In International Student Affairs, we support international student success at Temple University. In order to achieve this mission we focus our efforts on four key areas. 

The first is engagement: We do cultural events and activities, provide orientation support and we implement career readiness programs. Our international coffee hours highlight a new culture each month. Our #YouAreWelcomeHere Week celebrates our community and brings together both international and domestic students, and our professional development series explores international specific issues on the path to your future career.

Leadership: We offer multiple paths to leadership for our students and we support our students in taking on diverse leadership roles on campus that expand their skill sets and their experience. For example, we have global LLC peer mentors, international resident coordinators, peer-to-peer mentors, and our office assistants.

Advocacy: We promote advocacy efforts across campus. For example, our International Student Advisory Board is comprised of 15 students who represent the interests of the international student body and work on projects designed to benefit the international community Temple.

Lastly, personalized support: While there are challenges to being an international student, we serve as a listening ear and we provide that personalized support to all students. If you're experiencing difficulties and need help, or if you simply have unanswered questions you can always start with our office and we will guide you.

Next, I'm going to turn things over to our assistant director, Marena, to talk about our peer-to-peer mentoring program.

We also provide a specialized peer-to-peer mentoring program for international students. Students will be matched in small groups with an established leader, who will facilitate weekly check-in meetings and provide information about campus resources, offer support when needed, and most importantly, provide a warm space to meet new people and share experiences. All new students are highly encouraged to participate and will receive signup information after depositing. If you want to know more, check out our peer-to-peer video on our global Temple YouTube channel.

Now we'll turn things over to our first leader, Hye-yun Sohn.

Hello, my name is Hye-yun Sohn and I am from Korea. I am a senior majoring in management information systems at the Fox School of Business. I have been holding various leadership roles and jobs on campus, especially through International Student Affairs Office. I work as an office assistant mentor through a peer-to-peer mentoring program and I also serve as an international resident coordinator at the Diamond Green Apartment. I also have been involved in other office student organizations and student professional organizations in an ISA Department.

My favorite aspect of studying at Temple is we have various guest speakers coming in to talk to students and share their personal experience, which allows us to network with them. Temple has very supportive staff for international students, they genuinely care about our wellbeing throughout the semester. They organize a wide variety of events for us to engage in our Temple's community and that is why I was able to become a very active student on campus. Thank you.

Thank you, Hye-yun. Next up, we have Andres Mondragon who will talk about his experience.

Hi everyone, my name is Andres Mondragon and I am a student from Lima, Peru, majoring in Statistical Science and Data Analytics. I have been involved with a variety of organizations and clubs such as the Latino organization and International Student Advisory Board. Also, I am proud to currently serve as the Vice-President of International Student Association. As one of the two inaugural #YouAreWelcomeHere Scholarship recipients, I have been given numerous opportunities to help the international student community at Temple, such as when I led an event for mental health awareness and help in organizing the global gala, which showcases international student talents every fall.

These have been opportunities that have been, thus far, my favorite as a Temple student. As a final thought, I think that had it not been for the International Students Office I would have struggled with many of the things I have been able to partake in so I am very fortunate to always have them as a resource.

Thank you both. We hope that you get the sense that ISA is here to help ensure that you have an excellent experience at Temple University. We want you to fully experience life as a college student on our beautiful campus and in the incredible college city of Philadelphia. At Temple, our international students are both passionate and involved, and there's a thriving international student community here that's ready to welcome you.

If you would like to connect with us, please feel free to reach out to our office at intl@temple.edu, and for more information about the application process you can email international.admissions@temple.edu as well. Don't forget, you are welcome here.