Aliya Shamshudin, Artsci ’09, was faced with a new and unfamiliar culture when she came to Queen’s
after having grown up in Guyana. She said she remembers all too well her first days at university.
“In my culture, eating with your hands is customary,” Shamshudin, Artsci ’09, told the Journal.
“I used a knife and a fork for the first time at Queen’s, and it was so awkward, I felt like everyone was looking at me.”
To make the transition to Canada smoother for international students like Shamshudin, the Queen’s Coalition for Ethnic and Racial Diversity in collaboration with Queen’s Health, Counselling and Disability Services, has created a Queen’s Peer Connections program.
The program pairs international students and self-identified minorities with upper-year students.
Sara Parzhigari, Peer Connections co-ordinator, said she wants to ensure other students don’t experience the same culture shock she did when she came to Queen’s from Iran two years ago.
“When I came to Queen’s myself, I experienced a whole new culture, new language, new environment. There were so many things that I didn’t know,” she said. “There are so many things now that someone who had overcome the same problems could have helped me with.”
Parzhigari said she hopes the new initiative will reach first-years, whom she sees as being the people
who need help the most. There are 12 mentors involved right now, and a number of upper-year students who volunteer to organize social events and act as cross-cultural counsellors. The program, funded by the Dean of Student Affairs office, also runs weekly social events and informal discussion groups where students share their personal experiences and issues.
Shamshudin said she thinks having someone acting as a mentor and helping to familiarize international students to the University would be a good idea. “As long as the program is more about understanding and acceptance, rather than pushing you to be a certain way, then that would be cool.”
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