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During a recent session of Living in Brunswick, as the series is called, the group discussed a custom several found perplexing.

"One of the first things I often hear about is greetings. Many students tell me, 'I don’t get it: when people ask how are you doing, they don’t really care!'" said Associate Class Dean and Associate Director of International Student Experience Khoa Khuong ’04, who advises international students and created º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ's current International Student Orientation (ISO) program in 2016.

Yes, that's right, Khuong explains. In the US, a casual "How ya doin'?" is more a quick "hello" than an actual query into one's well-being. There is no expectation or even desire to get a lengthy anecdote in response. "That's always a fun conversation," he said.

Orientation programs for international students

The Living in Brunswick program is an extension of the three-day International Student Orientation that occurs in mid-August. This takes place before the College's more comprehensive first-year orientation. 

To help international first-year students newly arrived at º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ recover from jet lag and get settled, they're invited to campus a few days before the rest of their class. This way, they have the chance to sleep a bit, meet one another, set up new phones, open bank accounts, and get acquainted with the campus and its resources. 

"The International Student Orientation in the summer gives them the opportunity to get their bearings, so when the rest of their classmates arrive, they're not so lost and can engage in all the wonderful programs," said Khuong.

This fall, Khuong also invited the thirty-eight international first-year students to participate in his relatively new Living in Brunswick program, which entailed meeting over breakfast in Thorne Hall once a week for five weeks starting in early September. (Living in Brunswick was first offered in 2019 but was paused during the pandemic.)

"I wanted to give students the space to talk about their experiences and the challenges they are facing, and to give them the vocabulary to identify the feelings they're having," he said. "And I wanted to give them the tools to navigate those challenges as they continue to build a strong network with their peers in the international community." 

Khuong knows firsthand how stressful it can be to adjust to a new country. As a teenager, he immigrated to the US from Vietnam with his family, and shortly after that, enrolled at º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ.

"I had recently come from another country, so I felt the isolation and the place of being between two cultures and not fitting into either one," he said. "And I saw that with a lot of our students."

Each Living in Brunswick session is built around a different theme and is offered twice a week to accommodate everyones' schedules. But Khuong said many students have enjoyed it so much they've attended both breakfast meetings each week.

Krishna Goenka ’26, who is from Bangalore, India, said when he first stepped foot on campus, he was quiet, but has become more outspoken because of the support he's received and the friends he's met through the ISO program. "When I look back, I can see I was very shy," he said. "But the whole program allows you to express yourself in many different ways."

The program as a whole "gives the students the affirmation that they are not alone," Khuong said. "It's a chance to hear from each other about how they're dealing with different things and to hear from professionals—including someone from counseling—who can help give them tools to navigate their time here."

Throughout the program, Khuong makes a point to introduce his advisees to º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ's counseling center. "In some countries, you go to counseling only because there is something wrong with you," he said, whereas here, of course, it's much more common for people to use therapy at different phases of their lives.

Moana Gregori ’26 said the whole ISO process has been valuable, right from the moment she arrived on campus after a grueling thirty-hour journey from her home in Klagenfurt, Austria. "If I had arrived alone after three days of travel without my family, I would have been so overwhelmed," she said. "The program you three days to get used to your environment and learn how things work."

Plus, she appreciated the instant community she found during orientation. "It gives you a group to connect with, so you have a small family right away."

Revisiting these connections during Living in Brunswick has been comforting, she added. "It's lovely," she said. "Everyone comes together. It's interesting because you hear about everyone's experiences, and you learn about their cultures. But you also see that you're not the only one with certain struggles, that we all kind of feel the same."