{"id":4267,"date":"2017-12-22T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T00:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/studentmedia\/?p=4267"},"modified":"2018-01-17T22:11:47","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T15:11:47","slug":"international-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/international-students\/","title":{"rendered":"International Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written and photos by Phuong Kim Pham<\/em><\/p>\n

\"WCO
World Community Club doing community service work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The number one transfer college in Texas, ACC is not only a college for Texans, but students all over the world. International students contribute to the school\u2019s development and diversity with the increase of 1.38% district-wide from 2013 to 2017, according to ACC\u2019s 2016-2017 Fact Book. The increase shows that international students consider ACC to be a valuable institution, leading to greater demand for ACC to enhance their International Student Services.<\/p>\n

For academic and language learning, ACC provides more than 100 areas of study, with credits being transferable to a four-year college. This gives students a variety of choices in majors to pursue.<\/p>\n

Anh Vu, a first-year ACC international student, is very pleased with her first college experience. \u201cThe school help me find all the credited classes that I need to transfer to a four-year university,\u201d she said. \u201cI was able to learn thoroughly about my major\u2013 which is Computer Science \u2013 through the advisors.\u201d<\/p>\n

ACC also provides English Language Instruction, such as English as a Second Language (ESL) and Intensive English Program (IEP) for international students who wish to enhance their English skills. Porry Chen, a Chinese IEP student, has a good impression of the program: \u201cThe classes are fast but very effective,\u201d she shared. \u201cIt gives me the opportunity to meet people from other cultures and practice English.\u201d In addition to the English programs, ACC establishes English Composition classes for non-native speaker to create a delightful academic environment for international students. Wandaka, a student from Congo, says he received a lot of helps in the class. \u201cAlthough the class was hard, I think if I have any trouble with study, the teacher and classmates will help me with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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World Community Club organizing bake sale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The problem that international students have with ACC\u2019s service is distance, as the International Student Office (ISO) has only two campus location: Riverside and Round Rock. Vu is one of many international students who choose Northridge to be their main campus. As a first-year ACC student, she had to go to the office four times to get her paperwork done. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty upsetting that ACC doesn\u2019t have any office in Northridge, I was really tired having to go [to the ISO] so many times,\u201d Vu shared.<\/p>\n

Porry Chen, who studies at Highland campus and Cypress Creek, said, \u201cI don\u2019t have problems going to the office but going by bus does take a very long time.\u201d They all hope that ACC will extend International Student Services to additional campuses in order to save on traveling cost and time.<\/p>\n

Regarding co-curricular activities, many international students at ACC find joining clubs and college activities to be unusual. One reason is that their culture stresses education as the priority, and overlooks co-curricular college development. Another reason is that there are not many activities that reach international students. Anh Vu, a student who has spent four years in the United States as an international, shared that she only knew about her club through the international student\u2019s orientation. \u201cYou probably have to walk around and try to find other clubs\u2019 information to join, which is very time-consuming and difficult for new international students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Being a hard-working student, Anh Vu is also the Secretary of World Community Club (WCC). She likes to spend her free time doing club activities and meeting new people, as she was also an active international high school student in South Carolina. She wants to encourage international students to be open-minded to learn new things. \u201cJoining WCC is not hard, you don\u2019t have to attend to the meetings to join, all you have to do is email us or join the group on MySL and we will send you various events for you through email,\u201d she suggests. \u201cStudent Life is also like a helping center for anyone who wants to meet new friends, you can definitely join them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"international<\/p>\n

Pick this story up in the Spring 2018 Life4U magazine<\/a> on campus.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written and photos by Phuong Kim Pham The number one transfer college in Texas, ACC is not only a college for Texans, but students all over the world. International students contribute to the school\u2019s development and diversity with the increase of 1.38% district-wide from 2013 to 2017, according to ACC\u2019s 2016-2017 Fact Book. The increase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4103,"featured_media":4268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[656],"tags":[731,730,729],"class_list":["post-4267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life4u","tag-first-year","tag-international-students","tag-phuong-kim-pham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}