Stirling’s international officer for the Students’ Union, Dimitrios Terzis, will kick things off today (February 22) with the International Festival running until Wednesday evening.
A total of eight separate events will be held over the course of three days designed to bring together and help students who are studying at the University of Stirling from overseas.
Terzis welcomes any students to attend the welcome session at 11am today in order to find out more about what is instore. The welcome event will be followed by a “Global Café” in collaboration with Friends International Stirling, which will give students a chance to grab a mug of their favourite drink and get to know each other more at 1pm.
At 3pm, guest speaker Zenia Chopra, who specialises in immigration at Kingsley Napley, will give a presentation on visas and immigration for students planning to stay in the UK after university.
On Tuesday (February 23) at 11am, the non-profit organisation Citizens Rights Project will deliver a must-attend session for EU nationals to discuss any issues that the UK’s recent exit from the EU may have caused, which will be followed by a question and answer session for anyone who is keen to know more.
At 3pm, the University of Stirling’s Careers and Employability Service will provide a talk tailored for students attending the festival who would like to know more about the options, opportunities and resources available to them and how the service can help to support their job hunt during and after their studies.
On Wednesday (February 24) at 11am, international students will be given an opportunity to meet the members of the Students’ Union who represent them during their studies and find our more about what the Union can do to help and how to get involved.
At 1pm, there will be a virtual clubs and societies fayre where students can check out the multitude of different activities and groups available to them through the Union and perhaps even find their newest hobby or meet new people who share the same passions.
To end the festival, Terzis will then host a closing event to reflect on the past three days at 4pm.
Speaking to Brig, Terzis acknowledged the difficulties caused by life during lockdown, but remains absolutely positive that the festival will be a resounding success:
“This has been, without a doubt, a very different year. We had to adjust to the new reality and change the way we work in events. It comes as no surprise that the International Festival this year is very different compared to the previous ones, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
“We have taken advantage of the fact that the Festival is online this year to bring in external speakers that would have been difficult to bring on campus otherwise. The idea is to give students an event that could ‘reimburse’ them in a way for the lost in-person experience we usually have.
“We have not compromised in quality and we have prepared something for everyone, international or not. A lot of hard work has been put into this project and I am really excited about the final result! During these three days, the world will connect in Stirling, both literally and metaphorically speaking.”
If you would like to attend any of the #StirInternational2021 events, you can find more information on the event Facebook page here or join the Microsoft Teams event group directly here.
Featured image credit: Demitrios Terzis
Politics, Philosophy and Economics student at the University of Stirling. Media Officer for Stirling Students' Union and Secretary of Brig Newspaper.
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