The Office for International Students and Scholars will be holding an International Coffee Hour on Friday, Oct. 2 from 3-5 p.m. in room 320 of the Student Center.
Hosted every last Friday of the month, students, domestic and international can expect games, discussions and social interaction activities with one another over catered food and coffee provided by EMU.
“We were thinking to get everyone together to talk over coffee and so we just wanted to have a regular event that students can go to and we wanted to provide coffee, tea and cookies for that,” said Theres Rumgenhagen, a graduate assistant for the Office of International Students and Scholars from Germany.
President of International Student Association, Muneez Patel, talked about the significance of international students and the event.
“It’s important because it allows the international students to come together and to talk to each other and share ideas and thoughts,” said Patel. “They just need a break from academic studies and to get involved with something extracurricular so they can prefer to go out to coffee hours and to have some time to find friends and have a good social interaction.”
Patel encourages domestic students to come and to allow the international students to have a conversation partner and to help them adjust to American society as well as to get rid of culture shock.
“That’s why I organize events for them so they can have the opportunity to come and interact with people and find domestic friends or other international friends from different countries and then at the same time to get connections through connections to find jobs, social engagements and extracurricular activities,” said Patel. “They all impact overall development and decrease stress levels.”
The event is open to the public and you can find more events on their calendar at www.emich.edu/oiss.
