What a great start to a new academic year of 2013-2014!

It seems that each generation of students have their defining character. I would describe this group of new EAL students from the year 2013/14 academic year as a “proactive” bunch. Both individually and as a group, this amazing set of students made extra effort to step forward to express their desire to proactively seek support in the areas of academics, cultural exchange, psychosocial stressors, understanding Canadian culture and language, and our Canadian nursing milieu.

I remember one day in the early fall semester, I booked a meeting time and five students showed up at my office. Imagine five students jammed into a timy 6 x 10 office, and all were excited to share the challenges that they were facing and their desire to do well. Students were from all walks of life. Each of them shared their own unique journey bringing them to the School of Nursing and Midwifery at MRU. They are from various corners of the world: Russia, Ukraine, China, Vietnam, Japan, Philippines, and Uganda. This diverse group has members who speak more than three languages, have received previous university degrees and have work experience, ranging from tour guide, air hostess, healthcare professional to high school honor students. We then got right to work brainstorming on what each student needed, developing a plan and strategy to implement. Mentors (peer and faculty) were matched accordingly as well as referral to appropriate resources, such as the Wellness Centre and the Learning Skills Centre.

Of course, the two most important reasons for the group were forming friendships and having support to accomplish their dream—to be a nurse.