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We sat down with Emily Mitolo and Catherine Kline, from International Student and Scholar Services, and Divya Blakemore and Jenna De Gruy, from UDayton Global, to talk about the ways their offices work closely to support international students at UD. 

Maybe you’ve been in the Rike Center before for a Global Coffee Hour, or perhaps you’ve observed an Intensive English Program class. Maybe you attended Jummah prayers there on Fridays, or had a friend who was an international student and happened to meet up with them in the World Exchange Lounge. But, you may not have had a reason to connect with International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) or UDayton Global (UDG) yet. These two offices, both housed in the Rike Center, are the beating heart of international student support at the University of Dayton. From answering visa and immigration questions to connecting students with housing options in Dayton, the services provided by these two offices make UD feel like home for the approximately 1400 international students and visiting scholars on campus at any given time. 

Emily Mitolo, Associate Director for Student Services in the ISSS office, laughs that she’s definitely in the right job, because she enjoys the unpredictability of any given day. “One of the best parts about this job is that you never know what your day is going to look like! We come in and see who needs support, what campus collaborations and committees need some attention. And so who walks in the door each day really defines the day. It's almost impossible to completely plan ahead.” Divya Blakemore, Student Success Manager for UDG, agrees. “There's no dull moment in this work! At UDayton Global, we have an open door policy. We ask. We listen. We encourage students to just come in and ask questions.”

Both ISSS and UDG serve international students in a holistic way: they meet students with questions or concerns, and, through listening and relationship-building, seek to determine their needs, both spoken and unspoken.  Mitolo says, “Our goal in general is to support the whole student. We’re not academic advisors, so we don't specialize in academic support. Sometimes students come in and they mention they're having trouble in class. But then that unfolds into a conversation about missing somebody back home, or they have food insecurity or local transportation issues, etc. When students come to us, we try to be more transformative advisors than transactional. They might think they're coming for a small transaction with us in relation to immigration or advising, but it often turns into a bigger conversation where we can support them in all aspects of their life. One advising trick I use is to say, ‘So how's everything else going in your life?’ at the end of the conversation, and sometimes that opens up other issues or things to celebrate with them that maybe they didn't anticipate sharing with us.”

The transition back from the disconnect created by COVID has been a challenge for both offices. ISSS and UDG have seen a significant decrease in the engagement of students since the pandemic shut the world down, and students have been slow to re-engage. Blakemore notes, “One of our goals that we've been trying to work towards is to increase engagement. Jenna and I both started at UD post-COVID. The University was starting back up [in person] and we saw a big shift in student engagement with on-campus activities. During COVID, everything shifted online. Students were more comfortable with online or hybrid classes. So our focus was on how to bring them back to campus and get them engaged, so they are not just coming to campus for their classes, but they are actually living the experience of being on a university campus.” 

One of the ways ISSS and UDG collaborate is through a slate of programming geared toward educating students on the support available to them as UD students. Orientation activities for incoming students are dynamic and engaging, and hosted by both offices. Mitolo says, “In January and August, we welcome students together, and that has gone very well. We can really lean on each other's strengths, human resources, and different talents that everybody's bringing to the table. Regardless of the admissions channel, every student gets the same support, welcome, and love that they deserve as they arrive on campus.” 

Often, cultural differences can make connecting students with available resources a challenge. Blakemore notes, for example, that students may have cultural perceptions about mental health services that may keep them from reaching out. “We are trying to build awareness around mental health. At times it's not the same in their home countries. So when students arrive here, we really want them to understand that if they are feeling anxiety, if they are feeling they're not receiving support, what could be the underlying causes for it? We want to normalize this for them, that mental health can be a concern. So we connect students to the Counseling Center. We can tell them it's okay to feel anxiety when you are sitting in a classroom where nobody speaks your language and you are having trouble understanding your professor. It's okay to be scared to not ask any questions in the classroom. We want them to understand that there are people here who want to support you. And just the fact that it's okay to not be okay.”

Support extends beyond orientation and problem-solving. Jenna de Gruy, Student Services Advisor for UDG, and Catherine Kline, ISSS Advisor, develop events and activities throughout the academic year to celebrate cultural holidays, explore the Dayton area, and build community connections across campus. Kline mentions visits to the Zoo, Scene 75, and the Ohio Renaissance Festival, and de Gruy is looking forward to the Thanksgiving dinner for international students that their offices will collaborate on. The dinner, she says, “aims to welcome all international students, whether they've come through the UDayton Global program, whether they've come through standard entry, whether they're  undergraduate or graduate…our communication about when we do events, how we do them, what we want to collaborate on, I think, has been a great benefit for both our offices.” 

The best part of their job? Meeting the needs of students in a way that makes UD feel like home. De Gruy shares, “Before fall orientation we may see a lot of names in the email inbox, and getting to connect faces with those names, and especially make individual connections with students, is great. And you're able to ask them, how did that math test go? Or whatever they had talked about last time. I really like that. Because you know that you're making an impact when they remember you, so not only having holistic support, but feeling like they have individual people in these offices that they can come to for help, and knowing that we're making a difference.”  Blakemore agrees: “We can't make everyone happy. But there have been times when students come and they say, ‘Oh, wow! That orientation program was so much fun. We really enjoyed it. Thank you for your help. We feel like home.’ And when we hear that from students, that is the best part for me, because it makes me feel like I'm doing something right. We are providing the right support to students. They have a safe place, and they feel like they’re home.”