1. What does the Office of International Services (OIS) do?

The Office of International Services, located on the first floor of Main Building, is an arm of Campus Life tailored specifically towards the International community on Vassar’s campus. Every semester, we organize a number of events that are open to the entire campus which serve as a celebration of the diverse background of the students, faculty and staff who are members of our community.

2. Who works within OIS?

OIS is typically made up of an director and eight student interns. Occasionally there is an assistant-director. Andrew Meade, Ph.D., currently serves as the Director the Office of International Services and has worked in international education for over ten years. The Spring 2015 roster of interns is Yunjia Zhou ’17, Yujie Feng ’17, Simeon Bea ’16, Tyler Wen ’18, Juleen Graham ’18, Vansundhara Mathur ’18 and Robyn Lin ’18.

3. Sometimes I feel homesick. Does do anything to help with that?

In fact, many of our events are tailored towards making the transition from one’s home culture to America culture has seamless as possible. Through the academic year, the interns hold panels called “AROUND THE WORLD” (ATW) which focus on different geographical regions. ATWs involve inviting region experts to speak on that area, student volunteers with ties to the region volunteering to make their native cuisine followed by a guided dialogue facilitated by one or two of the interns.

We also offer two programs, one in the Fall and the other in the Spring to try to engage Vassar students in an immediate way about their own lived experiences as International students.

Lastly, many of our programs are geared towards helping Asian students in their transition to Vassar which includes a trip to NYC during October break, and the Asian Peer Mentorship program which pairs Asian international students with a student with whom they can gain some idea of how to be successful at Vassar and beyond.