The volunteer organization TSU-Online assists international students to adapt to university social and cultural life, with the help of Russian and international student volunteers.
- The main goal of the organization is to help international students, so the new mode of work did not particularly affect our activities. The International Student Services Center is still operating - you can come to an open office where the staff is always ready to help, - said Valeria Kuznetsova, a specialist of the International Division. - Also, volunteers conduct online consultations. Now the most frequently discussed issues are obtaining visas and leaving home. Soon, we plan to involve specialists at the International Student Services Center for consulting, to solve issues in personal communication, and not through the internet and mail.
The creative life of an organization with a new lifestyle has not disappeared either: volunteers help and come up with new projects. Now the whole team is discussing a plan of events in a remote format for international students who by September will not be able to return to Tomsk.
The launch of psychological assistance in a foreign language is expected, as it is widely available so far only for Russian-speaking students. The project is being developed with Azamat Nayman, head of the TSU Psychological Service, and will be open to all international students.
The last topic of the online meeting with students was the “Country Presentation” project - on May 17, students viewed the culture and traditions of Mexico and Zimbabwe. In full-time format, this would have been with national dances, music, and dishes, but in the remote format, it was with a presentation about national traditions and students performing national songs.
About 500 people will remain in the Sail (Parus) dormitory for the summer. These are TSU students and students of the Pre-courses Department entering undergraduate and specialty programs.
- The life of international students is no different from the life of Russian students. Someone also did not have time to go home and spends their vacation in a dormitory, someone misses live communication and their friends, and someone does not have enough time to complete all the learning tasks. In general, the problems for all students are similar now, - adds Valeria Kuznetsova. - They also are actively looking for work, including at the TSU UniProfi labor exchange, and some jobs are already arranged, for example, as an English-language counseling consultant and a Chinese-language project manager