NUNET CLITANDRE
Staff Writer
“I’m a little afraid to make friends in my classes because I feel my English isn’t good at all,” said Hanyu Deng, a Chinese international student.
This is a dilemma constantly faced by Deng as well as a countless number of international students at Fredonia and other universities alike.
In order to combat these feelings of isolation and self-consciousness, assistant director of international student services, Jacob Czelusta, created “Coffee Break!,” a weekly meeting specifically catered to the international students at Fredonia that takes place in room S266B of the Williams Center.
Czelusta says that one of his main goals for the meetings is to, “get a little energy boost, relieve some stress and, of course, to get the international students interacting with each other in a safe, chill environment.”
The idea for a space catered to international students came from Czelusta observing other universities within the SUNY system having similar kinds of meetings. He felt that it was time that Fredonia followed this trend.
“It’s been consistently and well attended since we first started,” he said. “It feels great to do good by these students.”
Czelusta stressed that even though these meetings are supposed to be for international students, all students are welcome to participate, to drink coffee and interact with the international students on campus.
Spanish and French adolescent education major Alexander Phillips is one of those students taking the opportunity to make friends with students from different countries.
“Well apart from getting free coffee, these meetings are a great way to meet other international students,” said Phillips as he proudly displayed his Starbucks coffee cup with a smile. “I myself am not an international student, but one of the main reasons I continuously come to these meetings is because I would like to be a teacher.”
Phillips said that he would like to teach English as a foreign language in the future. He believes that getting a feel for where these international students are in terms of their proficiency in English will help him in his future career as an educator.
Phillips also happens to be the vice president of international club.
“Many of the students who come to the meetings for international club also come to coffee break regularly, which [is] every Wednesday at 7 p.m.,” he said.
“Coming to these meetings helps boost my confidence a little bit because I get to talk to people who are from the same country as me, and that makes me feel a lot less alone and less aware of my bad English,” said Deng.