On Wednesday, August 13th, Lily Yi-Elkin, Assistant Director of International and Transfer Services at BMCC, welcomed incoming international students to BMCC with a two-day orientation.
Because BMCC is located in Lower Manhattan, over the years, more international students are enrolling at the college. Many of these students are attending BMCC on a special student visa from another country.
Part of Yi-Elkin’s job is to help these international students adjust to college life in New York. At the International Student Orientation, she spoke to 65 international students who will be attending BMCC this fall.
“We’re here to cater to your specific needs, to help you with BMCC rules and regulations,” Yi-Elkin told the students. “Some of you may need help with registration because it may be done differently in your country.”
According to Yi-Elkin, BMCC usually attracts 300 international students every semester. Currently there are 1,300 international students studying at the school. “We are ranked number five for community colleges that enroll international students,” said Yi-Elkin.
At BMCC’s International Student Orientation, new students had a chance to meet BMCC advisors and staffers who answered questions about visas, classes, the CUNY skills exam, I-20s, ESL requirements, and more.
“We have a full-day of events planned for you, and then you’ll be given a tour of the campus,” Yi-Elkin announced at the orientation.
Using a large screen for everyone to view, Christina Lev from the Registrar’s office discussed the school’s Panther system. Roma Grant from the testing department answered student questions about test requirements and class placement based on test scores.
Students converse with each other
Just before lunch, the international students were broken up into meet-and-greet groups, where they had a chance to talk with other incoming international students. This ice-breaker would help international students make new friends.
Yi-Elkin said one reason why it was important for students to meet each other at orientation is so they can discuss schoolwork and assignments should they have classes together.
An interest in advertising is what attracted Yoshiko Nakamura to study at BMCC this fall. Originally from Japan, Nakamura plans to study multimedia and eventually go into commercial or event advertising.
Danny Batel is an international transfer student who will be attending BMCC this fall as a computer engineering major. Originally from India, Batel is transferring to BMCC from the University of Alabama at Troy, where he studied business. “I wanted to come to New York City because, well, it’s New York City,” he said. “I like the name: New York City.”
Batel’s eventual career goal is to someday create new types of software programs. He found BMCC just by looking up schools in New York City on the Internet, and decided to apply.
Efret Sherer, who grew up on a kibbutz in Israel, heard about BMCC from a friend. Last time she visited New York, she met a student from CUNY’s Hunter College who suggested she apply to BMCC. After serving two years in the Israeli army, Sherer decided BMCC was “a good place for me to start school in the U.S.” She hopes to pursue a career in psychology and eventually transfer to CUNY Hunter.
Incoming student Nadia Rudomedova is from Russia, but this isn’t her first time in college. She attended a university in Russia for three years, where she studied shipping operations and fleet management.
Although Rudomedova grew up in a foreign country, she saw familiar faces on the BMCC campus. “I recently took an ESL course at Hunter College and there are people in this room that I recognize from that program,” she said. “They’re sitting in the back!”
Rudomedova will be studying business administration at BMCC and wants to pursue a career as an international shipping agent.
“I could tell immediately that she was Russian” said Sherer about Rudomedova, who introduced herself to Rudomedova in the group meet-and-greet session. “I don’t know how, I just knew she was from Russia!”
BMCC’s Director of Admissions Eugene Barrios told the international students that at one point he was an international student just like them. He grew up in Puerto Rico and had to work on his English when he came to the United States.
“I see beautiful faces in this room representing different parts of the world,” Barrios said. “We have over 125 languages represented at BMCC and we are very happy to have you here.”
