Let's Talk UNLV

Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a k you NBC Studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:21
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of Let's Talk UNLV on public radio K, u and v 91.5. I am Dr. Tanya crab, and I'm here with my co host,

Unknown Speaker 0:32
Dr. Salmon scales again here. Let's talk UNLV. Today's special guests is Natalie Chan. And Natalie is a GA from Global Education Initiative, and international student and scholarships services. So we're definitely excited to have you Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.

Unknown Speaker 0:50
Hi, hi, daughter, Cusco and Monica. My name is Natalie, thank you for having me today. I'm an international student from Hong Kong majoring in Kabul and family therapy and a start to scale said I'm a GA for a global education initiative and also ISS.

Unknown Speaker 1:05
Wonderful. So we'd like to start by asking our guests their origin story. How did you get here? What brought you here and specifically, what brought you to UNLV? Okay,

Unknown Speaker 1:14
so let's start from the beginning. I first came to Indiana for my undergraduate study in journalism. Then I went to California for my MBA. I didn't seems too fair connected with business. So I actually felt a little bit lost. I found I thought to myself, maybe you didn't notice there wasn't a praise for me. So I brought the one way ticket. I planned it to go home, right? Yeah. My friend lived in Vegas. She still does. And I wanted to stay with her before I left. So during the time, when I was in Vegas, I found his program at UNLV. I applied it right away. But like not surprised I got rejected, because I did not have any experience. Right. So I emailed a director and then took some advice from her. I decided to stay and took one year to build up my competitive and eventually I applied a year later in a garden. Fast forward. I'm here.

Unknown Speaker 2:08
Right? That is awesome. You said you went to California? What city in California? Were you in? I was in LA and LA. Okay. I want to have from San Diego.

Unknown Speaker 2:17
I know. It was fine.

Unknown Speaker 2:19
I absolutely. So the the part of your story that that's makes my heart sing is that you know the unexpected and the idea that you wanted something right? And when you got rejected for it, your first answer wasn't this isn't for me, my your friends, sisters, what can I do to get prepared? So I love the idea that you wanted something enough to want to try and make yourself ready for it.

Unknown Speaker 2:39
Right? Yeah, I do a lollies, you know, my lack. So I don't want it to be an excuse to opt out. That's why I try to you know, like work more and feel more prepared for that.

Unknown Speaker 2:50
That is wonderful. Can you tell us a little bit about the global ambassador program? Like what is it? Okay.

Unknown Speaker 2:56
So, the global ambassador program is where we try to help our international students to feel safe, supported, and most importantly, to be at home at UNLV. A lot of international students experience loneliness. Although loneliness is not exclusively to international students. But homesickness and cultural differences have certainly intensifies the feelings of their loneliness, and also on top of the language barrier, and perhaps some stereotypes is more difficult for them to make friends on campus. And that's why our global ambassador program coming into the picture, and try to create a platform where everybody can get together and know better about each other. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 3:40
excellent, excellent. What do you think is some of the greatest challenges of international students here at UNLV? And what did you experience as an international student?

Unknown Speaker 3:50
Yeah, as I said, loneliness, loneliness is like number one difficulty and challenges. As an international student myself, I totally understand how hard it is, people back in my home city will probably tell you're under most extroverted like person that they ever met. But in this country is not surprising that some students, or some classmate may think that I'm an introvert, not only did I lose the self confidence in expressing myself, but I also lost a sense of self identity, because I cannot see the person as I used to be anymore. Because of the language barrier. I cannot easily brand in and make friends. And this might be a mutual experience, meaning that a lot of domestic student probably feel the same. They don't know how to start a conversation is with us. And that's why it goes back to the reasons why we want to founder a global global ambassador program.

Unknown Speaker 4:42
So it sounds like what's helpful is having a community of care, having a group of individuals with similar experiences, who can, who you can relate to and who understand where you're coming from. Not necessarily I mean, language is important, but just the idea of being a newcomer to a new place and what that feels like for you.

Unknown Speaker 5:02
Like for me being a newcomer? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 5:04
tell me because I know that you went to you've been in several different parts of America. And I'm just curious, was it were the experiences the same or different? Did you notice any thing differences between when you were in California versus when you were in Indiana versus when you're in Vegas, for example?

Unknown Speaker 5:20
Okay. It's an interesting question. So I'm from Hong Kong, right. So I speak Cantonese. So most international students from China here are Mandarin speaker. So yes, so it's like a double challenge for me. Not that I need to know, encounter the length language barrier of English, but also have to pick up Mandarin. Yes. So now I do speak Mandarin, because of you know, my learning experience in United States. But at the beginning, it was difficult. I couldn't speak to anyone. And we don't have a lot of like Hong Kong International students back in Indiana. So I do, or I did feel a little bit left out. Yeah. And then back then in Indiana, we do not have such an amazing program. So I just got to found my way l. And then I still make effort just to make friends that usually with other international students as well, it's just easier to click with a student with similar background experience. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 6:18
So you spoke about the language barrier. So when you learn Mandarin, did you actually learn it from a class online? Learn it from your group of friends that you are around learn from other people?

Unknown Speaker 6:28
Yes, it's more like from the group of friends. Yeah. And I remember that it was so silly, I have to take note. So like Chinese, they all look the same in written form. So sometimes I couldn't really pronounce that word in Mandarin. I will just wrote it wrote it out. That's how big communicates.

Unknown Speaker 6:46
I love I love that creativity. And I love that you're always looking for ways to overcome barriers was was California the same as Indiana was that any different for you?

Unknown Speaker 6:57
is little bit better. Because California has a lot of Chinese immigrants or even outside of campus, you can easily connect with people that speak Cantonese. So it was easier. And then a California is a much bigger state and much more diverse city like state than Indiana to so things actually got better when I you know, arrived there. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 7:19
excellent. Now you're in a global ambassador program. So who are your global ambassadors here on campus?

Unknown Speaker 7:25
I'm glad you asked. So we have 11 global ambassadors, they are all from undergraduate and pro graduate level, some moved to the United States with their families when they were younger, some are domestic student who are interested in studying abroad, some are just international student like me, they all have distinct international experiences and profound interest in cultural learning. They are more than a team of outstanding and compassionate students who are eager to help they genuinely understand international students struggles to put themselves in the shoes of the student, because they have gone through very similar difficulties.

Unknown Speaker 8:05
Okay, so when it says a global ambassador, because when I think of that worry, I think of the of the world, you know, a picture of the world. So do these students have to be from a particular region? Or are they all different cultures and nationalities? What what makes up that global ambassador, team that you have with 11? Members? What were some of those members from? Okay,

Unknown Speaker 8:26
so some of those students are from, like, East Asian, like, like me, like China, right? And then they're also from Philippines, from Pakistan's from Africa from Let me see. They are also from I can remember a lot of like, yeah, I cannot remember a lot of like countries but that they are from all around the world, that's for sure. And they all have a strong interest in like creating that cultural diversities on campus.

Unknown Speaker 9:04
What I hear is that you're you're trying to hit all those kinds of individuals and and that a big part of the reason that people want to be a global ambassadors because they they're familiar with those experiences, and they want to make sure that other people don't have the challenges that they go through in this program. So one of the things that I guess I wanted to ask you so what does one need to do to become a global ambassador, you talked about not being quite not quite having everything that you needed in order to be part of this program. So what do you need in order to be a global ambassador is

Unknown Speaker 9:37
actually very simple. We only want students who are passionate and compassionate everyone wanna you know, like, learn more about different cultures and be part of it can come join us. We welcome all students like domestic international regardless what major they study what level they are in. We want them to join us as long as they are interested in making UNLV more international campus.

Unknown Speaker 10:06
Oh, excellent. Is there anything that you guys that you all do over there to get the name out more and so that the students on campus can actually learn the information about your organization and just, you know, make a decision on whether they want to be a part of it or want to attend events? What do you do to publicize the program? Okay,

Unknown Speaker 10:25
so global work. Our Ga Ga program, Global Ambassador Program is a pilot projects. We only started like from last June. Yeah. So first year round, we Quitman wasn't like kind of advertised or everywhere. But then we do advertise on our ISS, Instagram. Yeah, if anyone's interested on Instagram, UNLV. ISS. That's where we post all our updates of our event. And also informations about the global ambassador program. Yes. And on top of that, we also partner with a lot of like campus leaders, such as student diversity program, and also a first year experience, so that they are a great partnership with us telling student more about our program. And that's how we tried to recruit the next year round ambassadors, Tim.

Unknown Speaker 11:18
Yeah, that's an excellent idea to collaborate with other departments. I remember you having a program in SDP lounge not long ago. So that was excellent. What other fun things you guys do? What will you do on that particular day in STP rounds? Okay.

Unknown Speaker 11:33
So I'm glad that you're asked because this is the best part of our program, we created this we curling event called Global Thursday, meaning that every Thursday student come into student diversity lounge at 4pm. Well, but next semester, we trying to, you know, like, make it a little bit earlier, maybe start at 330. Because students tell us that there's not enough time, they want more, they want more time with us. Yes. So let's say 4pm, for now, like every Thursday, right as student diversity lounge, that people can come together to talk about a cultural topic with us, there are two parts of global Thursday. One is what I said the culture and conversations and for the alternative week, that people would come in to learn a different language. And we call that language exchange program, where a student can mutually teach or learn a language. So for example, there will invite Chinese Connor Durbin crop, and also our family, student organizations, they will come in to demonstrate how their learning languages spoken and interact with students and try to teach them how to pick up you know, some easy phrases.

Unknown Speaker 12:43
Excellent.

Unknown Speaker 12:45
That sounds like so much fun. You know, whenever I hear you talk about it, like the the audience can't see you, but you are beaming? Yes, like you are. You are delighted you're smiling, that I can tell this means a lot to you. So you know, one of the things that I was wondering is, you know, as someone who's gone through this experience, as someone who's been part of this global ambassador experience, like what would you tell someone who's an international student who's contemplating maybe like you? Should I stay? Or should I go bought a one way ticket but aren't sure? Like, what would you tell someone who's in that position about what it means to be an international student here, and specifically here in UNLV?

Unknown Speaker 13:23
I will say, this might sound a little bit cheesy, but really, thank you so much to this global ambassador program, I found myself again, yeah, I once lost my sense of self identity, but because of this program, I seems to be me, okay. And then every time I talk, I always talk to students, I check in with them, make sure that they're doing fine, they're okay. They don't need any, they need any resources from me that I will pair them with, you know, the right prices. And every time that I try to talk to them and see, you know, how well they are doing, they will tell me, they are also very grateful to our program, they appreciate, you know, everything that we have done for them, because they don't feel lonely anymore. They are able to make friends, they feel more happy, happier, more competence in carrying conversations with others in English, this is a big deal for us. Yes. And every time I looked at their smile, I feel very pressed and accomplish. Like,

Unknown Speaker 14:25
that is excellent. You know, we've done several shows where we've had guests, it's pretty much said the same thing that you've said, students finding that sense of belonging, yeah, you know, finding someone that, you know, they can relate to, that they can talk to, that have shared some of the same experiences. It's always important, you know, to have that, and that leads to you know, a better connection with the campus, you know, students doing better in classes, you know, having something to look forward to when you're in those type of programs, and that sense of belonging is there.

Unknown Speaker 14:55
When I listen to you talk about findings I like I don't have my whole heart lit up You know, because I think connection is super important, belonging, super important. And it's something that, you know, we take for granted. So the fact that there is a program that exists that says that we see you, you know, we want you to belong, we want you to feel like you should be here, we want you to feel like this is the place for you. And can you tell me, so? As we're talking about fun events, yes. For the, the Global Education Program, tell me what, like, what is your fondest memory of something that transpired, whether it was an interaction with someone, whether it was an event that you attended, that has that, that, I guess, sort of summarizes what it means to be part of this program.

Unknown Speaker 15:46
I will say, at every event, I tend to sit at the back of it. And then instead of like taking the lead, every time I actually tried to just warm up the room, and then you know, let let a frog grow by itself, and then let student you know, to carry on the conversations and activities. And that was the moment that I feel the most accomplished, like, oh, like they are really making friends stay engaged. And this is exactly one we want the student to to have. Right. And then the best part is, is not just for international students is actually for all students, a lot of domestic student learn about our events through UNLV events calendar, and they just dropping and joined us. And some of them actually spoke to me after the event and said that they appreciate what we were what we are doing because they always want to found a way to learn about, you know, different cultures, but they don't know where they don't have the resources Lolly if you know, just don't know where to go and stands to outstay now, you know, found us and then there will be like coming, like regularly,

Unknown Speaker 16:54
you know that that means so much to me, because, you know, I came to this country from Jamaica when I was really young. And you know, the truth of the matter is that when you're different, especially in the beginning, you really feel different, you know, and when you're looking for connection, in the beginning, it can feel so difficult when you have these little minor cultural barriers and language barriers. And I think to your point, there's a desire on both sides to be connected. Yes, but you provide a vehicle for connection with this club with this with this organization. So how does one get involved? I know you talked about, that people can come to the events by the different bike by going onto the calendar and seeing what's going on. But let's say someone is like, Hey, I'm ready to take the leap. I want to do this thing. Yeah. How would what? How would someone get connected and get involved?

Unknown Speaker 17:49
So the one way is on Instagram, as I said, UNLV, I SSS or student who want to learn more informations or have like, other concerns and questions is easy. My work email is natalie.chen@unlv.edu. Yes. So I will be walking them through all the questions that they they want to ask and all the concerns that they have. Where

Unknown Speaker 18:14
is your office located? If Susan wants to physically walk through the building, where is that building located?

Unknown Speaker 18:20
So our office is located in Student Service Center, a SSC a on second floor? We're right next to the financial aid office. Yes, yeah. You

Unknown Speaker 18:33
say financial aid. They can they can find that?

Unknown Speaker 18:35
Yes. Yeah. I picker. Excellent. Excellent. You

Unknown Speaker 18:39
know, other than the events that you have on Thursday, are there any other events that you you host on campus? Or that you guys? Yes,

Unknown Speaker 18:45
we do. We do also have a event called Spot Tuesday, but it's still like at a TasWater, you know, stylist, which we trying to do every month, but we are receiving a lot of positive feedback about it. So we definitely thinking to expand it. So moving on, we tried to make it maybe every other week. And we try to maybe work with other existing resources, for example, you know, dropping into workout classes at the Wellness Center. So there we are just bringing our students to join their events, but kind of like helping them to brand in and also get to network with all the amazing resources on campus. Yes. I

Unknown Speaker 19:26
love the crossover. And I love that this is sort of a holistic perspective to it. So let's talk support like in addition to having people during the program, are there any other ways in which the university at large or even the students or anyone else even the listeners can support your organization?

Unknown Speaker 19:46
So I will say I actually work more closely with ISS right but then I'm a CI a belong to to our global applications. And speaking of scorable application initiative, I I tend to think of it as a universe that our campus leader built together to make in UNLV, and international student campus asides set in for that our leaders are working very hard to recruit students, and recruit students from all across the world and also appealed to connections with other global partners like in China or mostly and also other like, country like Colombia, right in. But for student on campus, if they want to be helpful, the best way is just to join our event. Yes, and for any other campus partners, like offices or programs ordinator, that would like to be part of us, and then we could talk from there and see how we can cooperate to create more fun activities for students. I think that's the present.

Unknown Speaker 20:50
Excellent, you know, let's, let's let's do a hypothetical. If money was not an issue, you know, what would you like to see happen with this particular program here? On campus? If money was no problem, and you could do anything you want? What would it be?

Unknown Speaker 21:07
I would say, let's talk about our reasons hiking trip to rat rock. Okay, so we have brought a team of let's say, a group of 20 Somethings student to the rat while hiking, right is not very cheap to hike there. But if money is not a problem, then we will like to bring more student because we do have a very long, like sign up list. But then we just could not like bring everyone because of the budget. So yes, so money. If money is not the problem, then we could think of so much more like wonderful, amazing activities.

Unknown Speaker 21:44
What about partners here on campus, like Student Diversity Department and you know, ODI, all of those departments? Are you? Do you ever reach out to them to support it with an event like that, so that you can take more students with you. So

Unknown Speaker 21:59
usually, at this point, we are only bringing traffic to each other meaning that we just like kind of bring our students to each other events like the cooperations that we have wasted in diversity program. That's usually how we work together. But then, you know, in terms of budget, and then we were not very helpful, I guess.

Unknown Speaker 22:21
Room for collaboration, then, exactly. Collaboration will be the answer for that. Right. What

Unknown Speaker 22:27
have you heard in terms of feedback, what of the people that you've engaged with said about the the global ambassador program,

Unknown Speaker 22:35
so our team actually just send out an evaluation survey to all participants who attended our event is a master, we definitely tried to enhance the quality and ferocity of our events, by listening to your students sit back, though, as I said, I constantly check in with my students, I always, you know, make sure that they are doing well and then they are, you know, getting the help that they need. So I hear from them a lot. And every time I have such like a heart to heart conversations, even a brief one with them, I can feel their happiness, they all are very happy, and very delightful and also appreciative. They just grateful to be part of our program. And I know some of them have made good friends or even best friend in their live life from our program. And that's exactly what I want to see. And we definitely trying to, you know, resolve the biggest challenge for them, which is the loneliness. You

Unknown Speaker 23:39
know, I'm sitting here thinking also, when we open the show, we talked about you being a GA for this program, right? So for a first semester, freshman here on campus that may not know what that is, could you tell us what the role of a GA is? What do you do? What's your job entail?

Unknown Speaker 23:55
And what then what j stands for, because, you know, in education, we have our own language that we speak in our own sense of acronyms so so

Unknown Speaker 24:02
again, key a meaning like global ambassadors, right, since now, there we are pairing with the First Year Experience offers. So moving forward, we definitely will mention our program at their orientations with our new students. We also have our own like orientation, stay with international students, we are trying our very best to, like spread the word of our program, and I know that eat just in one year, a lot more campus partners know about us. And then they are not only reaching out to me, but also reaching out to the program director and to talk about all potential collaborations. So I will say that we are growing. We are growing slowly, but also fast, gradually, but fast.

Unknown Speaker 24:51
Excellent. Who's your program director there? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 24:54
So our program director is Lindsey grupper. She oversees not just our global app As a program that offers of ISS and also English Learning Center, and that's why a lot of our our global ambassador events cooperate with our English Learning Center. So though we trying to help mostly to international students who feel more comfortable to speak or communicate in English and also complete the assignment in English, okay,

Unknown Speaker 25:21
do you know by any chance some of the majors have some new ambassadors because with being a global thing, I'm thinking that is probably all over the board. So do you know some of those majors? Yes, I

Unknown Speaker 25:30
do. So a lot of them are in engineering. Yes. And then I have one like wonderful GH she took dual major in MBA and m i s. And then some other hospital rd for sure. And then also computer science. Oh, wow. Yeah, that is a very smart guy cuz he studies AI. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 25:53
Well, when you when you say it, you know, some engineering majors. Only thing I hear is math. I definitely hear math. So I can't do that one.

Unknown Speaker 26:05
You know, as I'm sitting here thinking, because we were talking earlier about you switching from business, yes. into an entirely different degree. And like that math, and I we just weighed down. But, you know, I was when you came in, I read your shirt about therapy, you know, the couple and family therapy, what happens in session stays in session. And I remember saying to you that you know, you're just an ambassador in your soul. Know, your ambassador care your ambassador of love so, but what what occasion what, what, why did you start in one major and then switch to another? Well,

Unknown Speaker 26:40
I actually first started with journalism, right? Because I had such a passions to serve the community. I long I imagine myself as a gatekeeper like, watchdogs, right as what journalists do. But then I do too many reasons, especially the politic code like situations back in my home city. So I've thought to myself that might not be you know, the way that if I want to protect my family, so that I switch my major, which is, you know, like a savers most transitional major, which is business. So I did MBA, but I actually not good at math. So I struggle a lot with all the finance classes, I cannot lie. And that how I know I cannot do it. Wow. Can

Unknown Speaker 27:22
you give us some parting advice? If you could give advice to students that want to be in this program? What advice would you offer?

Unknown Speaker 27:30
I would say, do try to do some foreign teener experience, try to get some foreign here experience before getting into the program and see if this is the work environments that you want to be in, like every day, because sometimes you might hear some really hard and difficult story that you cannot digest on your own. So you really have to figure out what to deal with those stress. And do you want to deal with that stress? Yes. And you've you figure that out? And this is your what's your wand? And please go ahead, go for it chase after what you want?

Unknown Speaker 28:04
No, and I have just have to say in defense of my mental health practitioners, like the world has mathematicians they need us to. So I'm glad you're part of the mental health team and working towards becoming a therapist. I think that that's the other side of it. You know, there's the practical things. But then sometimes people need that conversation and that encouragement, and I'm glad that you're here in both capacities.

Unknown Speaker 28:28
Yes, absolutely. I think that's an area that is definitely definitely needed, especially in the climate that we live in today. I think any every one you actually should have a therapist, so yeah,

Unknown Speaker 28:41
I'm glad to all those who have not like generalist as I thought I would be. I am still serving to come on to teach us in a different way. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 28:48
absolutely. And I'm glad you're here and to use your word smithing you has been delightful. Thank you so much. And that is a wrap.

Dr. Renee Watson 29:02
For more or less talk UNLV. Be sure to follow us on social media where you can get the latest updates on the show plus great behind the scenes content. We're on Facebook and let's talk about all the podcasts, Twitter, let's talk UNLV and Instagram and let's talk UNLV

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