A group of Cotter students were invited to be part of an International Relationship class taught by Dr. Lori Charron at Saint Mary’s University.

13 resident students left school early on February 1 and 6, and March 15. They were Ellena Girma, Jiayu Wu, Lucy Lee, Mehran Aghbar, Binh Thai, Waheed Ahmadzai, Eduardo Aguilar, Jennifer Lai, Cindy Li, Gloria Qiaoyang, Penny Peng, Claire Li, Sam He and Harry Yao.

Dr. Charron explained the purpose of “this (Cotter-Saint Mary’s) project was to allow students the opportunity to work on a “real world” issue within our community using the skills and knowledge we’ve been discussing in this Intercultural Communication class.”

“Specifically, I wanted them to LISTEN to the Cotter International students to really understand their perspectives about the issue (first meeting),SYNTHESIZE what they heard, INVESTIGATE further (second meeting), CREATE a solution, and then PRESENT their ideas in a compelling way (third meeting),” Charron explained.

The project was envisioned by Charron and Cotter director of residential and student life, Mrs. Barrientos.

“I have known Lori for years. She was a past Cotter mom.  Cotter has been seeking partnership with Saint Mary’s for years because it would help our students connect with college students.,” Barrientos said.

For the first two meetings, Cotter students and Saint Mary’s students were divided into small groups. They were asked to share their experience and life in the dorm.

Questions  like “How often do you talk with people who don’t speak the same mother language?”  ” Why did you choose Cotter?” “Do you like dorm life?”, were discussed between the two groups.

Dr. Charron held a little competition between the groups as to who had the best ideas for addressing the common issues facing international resident students at both schools.  The ideas were presented at the final meeting.

The group presented first won the competition with its idea of “Living Learning Group”.

Here is the link for its presentation: http://prezi.com/5j_-bngpwibx/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

There seem to be some positive outcomes from the sessions.

“All the groups are very different. We will apply some ideas next year. We might change our family structure. Now the dorm families are assigned based on gender and grades. Families could be formed by common interests like sports, cooking and art and will be cross gender. Dorm students can change their family assignment every semester. It will be a better way to group kids,”  Barrientos said.

The students who participated also see potential value in the exercise.

” It was a good idea because it (how to interact with each other) was an important issue that hasn’t be formally addressed before. People usually just talk within their own group but never as a whole. I voted for the Living Learning Community, I hope it’s gonna work, ” Cotter senior Ellena Girma said.

“I liked the idea of watching dramas and films from different country because this will enable us to have some fun conversations with each other. I have been in dorm for two years and I am really excited to see future changes made in dorm,”  sophomore Lucy Lee added.

There students also used skills in the classes that should transfer to their regular classes and later life.

“Their different style to presenting, some are good at it while the ones’ who don’t like to talk much will still be part of the presenting. this event will help students get to know that the stand up presenting in Mr. Howard’s class is a good practice for future college life,” Barrientos noted.

“There are more things could be done with this program, like inviting St. Mary’s students to spend time at the dorm to get a better, deeper observation. Dorm life in Cotter is different from St. Mary’s because we have younger teenagers,” Barrientos said.

After this events, one of Dr. Charron’s students indicated that “just talking with the Cotter students was one of the highlight of the semester.” They really had fun getting to know Cotter international students and wanted to more of it.

Cotter junior Jennifer Lai commented, “I think it is fun to participate in  this project because we don’t need to have classes. It will be effective if the plans are carried out. But it is based on people’s willingness to join these events.”

“I think, hmm, some of the ideas are not practical, but the purpose of this event was good. We’ll see how it will work out next year,” Claire Li, Cotter junior, said.