International House has been serving Washburn with global competence for students, faculty and staff for many years. The most recent numbers show that Washburn has 290 international students currently enrolled. Among them, 105 are new or transfer students for this semester. 

Heidi Staerkel, associate director of the International Programs, expressed her excitement about the new enrollment statistics.

“It is one of our largest incoming classes for a number of years probably since 2015,” Staerkel said. “So, it is exciting to see more students coming and getting visas.”

This semester, Washburn had 55% visa approval, which before would have been 30% in a good semester. The top three student populations who are on F1 visas came from Nepal, Japan and the Bahamas.

The orientation week for the international students took place from Aug.14 -19. 

“I think it is always so exciting to communicate with students, mostly by email, [but then] finally meet them face to face and find out who they are,” Staerkel said. “Students were excited, enthusiastic and energetic [even] after traveling, having jet lag, adjusting to weather and food and English and so many different things.”

The International House had summer orientation counselors helping them along with the presidential ambassadors for the international students. 

“It is always one of the busiest times of the year, but one of my favorite times of the year because of getting to know the students,” Staerkel said.

Aavash Manandhar, freshman computer science major, one of the international students who came this semester shared his experience on his arrival to campus.

“It was very new and big at first and I didn’t know [how] to navigate initially,” Manandhar said. “[Orientation week] was quite helpful. I got to know a lot of landmarks that were associated with the college.”

The International House values students’ opinions and the orientation week was aimed to let students meet people from other offices and returning students.

“The Washburn police chief stopped by and we had representatives from the business office and student employment as well,” Staerkel said. “I think [it’s important so] students can see ‘Oh, it is okay to ask for help and there are a lot of people here to support me and support my success’…and we will help connect [them] with the office that can help with those things.”

Staerkel encourages international students to be involved in the Weeks of Welcome activities. 

“I talked to some students that went to Rock the Rec on Monday,” Staerkal said. “[At these events], you meet people, and get more comfortable, so I am hopeful that a lot of the students went to those activities.”

One of the recent happenings in the International House was the transfer of its office to a new building on campus, the Plass Learning Resources Center. With some spaces still under construction, the International House will take some time to settle in.

“I think there will be some ongoing construction of some new classroom space, but as far as our office I believe we will be moving there Friday [Aug. 23],” Staerkel said. “It is exciting to be in a new space and make that a new home and, as much as possible, make that a place where international students feel comfortable.”

Staerkel explained where the new International Programs office will be.

“Our room number will be 220 so as students enter from the north doors which are the doors facing the parking lot,” Staerkel said. “So, on the 17th street side, when they go in those doors, then our office will be directly on the right after they enter.”

There have been some delays in the moving of the office to the Plass building because of the ongoing construction work. 

“I know with the project, the hope was that everybody would be able to move in before the semester began, but inevitably there were some delays which was not surprising,” Staerkel said. “Especially when you have so many areas moving to the new building, I think we could expect that there would be some delays.”

After the International Program office moves to its new place, the old International House will be used by faculty as a temporary office space while the construction continues.

The international programs are hosting future events on Nepali and Japanese holidays, especially the holidays celebrated by students who make up a larger population of Washburn’s international students. 

The International House will also be sponsoring a 10-week exchange program for a group of five students from Chiba University of Commerce in Japan to come to Washburn starting Sep. 22.

Edited by Morgan Albrecht and Jeremy Ford