Presentation by Carina Starkl
"Since my first day at the Universidad de San Andrés, I realized that my labour at the Foreign Studies Office should respond to the particular environment among this community.
The first distinction comes out with our daily trip into this particular campus, with its green grass and the fresh air coming from the river. All this prepares us for work everyday. The rhythm is hard, but we always have the opportunity to meet students or professors, which is always very nice.
This "changing cordiality" open its doors to our incoming exchange students, who usually feel at home. The Universidad de San Andrés is unique in its size, and this is one of the attributes that we should take advantage of. Our incoming and outgoing exchange students have the opportunity of meeting each other and sharing experiences, which is one of the most important goals of our cultural exchange program.
Our incoming exchange students receive an orientation program, which last 3 days and has the purpose of not only getting to know each of them but also to help them with their "cultural transition". This program ends with a boat trip in the Rio de la Plata.
Among the activities in this orientation program, our incomings will take a Spanish language exam and they will continue studying through out the semester with an expert in Spanish as a second language, as long as the teacher consider so.
The foreign exchange students will be presented in the different sectors of the university, Registration office, Computer Lab, Sports Department, etc.
Foreign Studies Office prepares extracurricular activities such as dinner, lunch, or just gatherings. These activities are usually received with enthusiasm and are chosen under the objective to fulfil all our incomings expectations.
Also Lic. Roxana Pozzuoli offers her counselling services, which helps our students to cope with different problems that may appear during their stay at San Andrés.
The Sports Department works with us promoting different sport activities and as a great opportunity to deal with that "cultural transition". We have really good sport-teams representing our institution.
I would also like to mention the activities planed by the CEUDESA (Student Center) to stimulate a close relation between our native students and our incomings. Among these activities, the CEUDESA organise cultural trips, lunches, concerts, parties, etc. Our student community is improving really fast in the social integration of our incomings, but this job needs a persistent and compromised cooperation of everyone.
Finally, the sum of all our efforts will strength our program and make our incomings feel that they are making part of a community away from home. "
Carina Starkl