Prospective international students considering Queen’s Engineering now have a new view of life at Queen’s, both on and off-campus. A student-led Instagram channel, Queen's Eng International, created by international students in the engineering faculty, will share their experiences with students considering Queen’s around the globe.
“As international students, we have some additional hurdles to overcome when choosing a school – and coming to that school for the first time,” says Khan Shamsuttoha, a third-year Engineering Physics student and coordinator of the project. “There are the obvious academic questions, but not feeling like you know much about the community you’ll be living in for years to come can be intimidating. We want international students in the engineering program to arrive already feeling familiar and comfortable with Queen’s.”
For Khan, and the other international students helping create the Instagram group, the solution to the problem seemed obvious: show prospective students what they’d be missing through one of the world’s most popular social media channels. “We are planning a variety of kinds of content,” he says, “but one of the essentials is going to be ‘day in the life’ take-overs, where we let international students show us the day of an international student at Queen’s Engineering. We want people to have a sense of the engineering school, but also what life is like on- and off-campus in Kingston.”
The Instagram page kicks off this week, with profiles of the international students contributing content. From there, Khan says, the sky’s the limit. “We would like to post some profiles and Q&As with current international students and others in our community,” he says. “The more we can show not only the unique community spirit of Queen’s Engineering, but how great it is to study at Queen’s and work in Kingston, the more this program will grow going forward.”
“The initiative and generosity that Khan and his team are showing in building this resource is impressive, and also demonstrates of the kind of community we have at Queen’s Engineering,” says Julie Hao, International Student Advisor at the faculty. “We have a track record of attracting strong international students to our engineering program, and this kind of giving back shows the sort of character we welcome at Queen’s.”
The international students’ Instagram feed is now live at https://instagram.com/qeng_international, with content and features to be added as the term progresses.
