Hosting an international student

Welcoming International Students to UBC.

International students who have been admitted as undergraduates to UBC for a Jan. 2009 start-date arrive from 1,000's of miles away

often without knowing a soul

without a Canadian bank account

without a student ID

without school supplies or basic living supplies

often without any winter clothing (if they come from warm climes)

The on-campus dorms that these students will be moving into (such as Totem Park) are closed during the Christmas between-term break and do not re-open until the night before classes start.

This year there are 9 students from countries whose first language is not English who will be arriving to begin as undergraduates at UBC starting Jan. 2009:

Could you possibly offer to help one?

At the very least just having a faculty member or grad student contact

an incoming student, even just by email, to say 'welcome' can make this foreign country seem a bit less imposing.

Even better if you can offer to help the student get some things sorted out --

like opening a bank account, getting essential supplies, finding his/her way around UBC and Vancouver, etc. -- before the craziness of the new term starts.

And best yet if you can offer the incoming student a place to stay before

classes start, or even if you can perhaps offer to meet the student at the airport when he/she arrives.

Think what this would mean to your own son or daughter, or even to you if you were venturing out on your own 1,000's of miles from home as an 18 or 20 year old. Though a student may have arranged a hotel room for the few days between arrival in Vancouver and the opening of his/her dorm, it might be much nicer for the student to not be alone, but to be with friendly people who can perhaps even offer a home-cooked meal.

Please use our form to offer to help a new student.

UBC International House will then put you in contact with the student.

Your Name
Address
Phone
Email

Student*

* select the student by the ID number in the above table.

Thanks so very much.

Neither Michelle Suderman - Associate Director, International Student Development - nor I know the day or time when any student is arriving, whether the student has a place to stay before the dorms open, or what any particular student specifically needs or wants. I just think that a friendly offer of hello and help would be appreciated by anyone, especially when that person is arriving alone in a distant land.