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SIT Graduate Students Arrive on Campus

Hailing from 60 countries and speaking 98 languages, students find unity and support during their first week.

The air is fresh, the trees are still green, and the view from "the hill" is breathtaking. It’s September in Brattleboro, Vermont, and once again students gather for a life-changing year of study, fellowship, and introspection at the School for International Training. Remember that first week on campus, when you opened your mind and took it all in? This year’s first impressions are sure to be familiar to SIT graduate school alumni. There is an initial timidity and resistance to blind introductions, an awe of the surrounding beauty of the lands around us, and a growing buzz of happiness that we have indeed made it to graduate school!

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The incoming class of students, both MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) and PIM (Program in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management), consists of nearly 250 excited individuals who have ventured to Vermont from 60 different countries and speak 98 languages. There are Fulbright Scholars here, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, Ford Fellows, and countless other active internationals. In his welcome speech to students, Alvino Fantini reminded us, in his inimitable style, that shared dispositions and attributes brought us here together to SIT. And thank goodness! SIT’s campus, faculty, staff, and students are undeniable symbols of international unity and openness.

So how are students feeling as the year commences? Carrie Doggett, a PIM-67 studying sustainable development says, "SIT is quite the place. I hope soon I’ll be able to say I know all of the incredible people here." It is truly a dizzying week as we all work to get to know each other and learn about our varied backgrounds. From meals in the International Center (IC) to new student socials, we find there is much to keep us socially occupied and loads of new people to meet. The incredible mix of people and cultures makes each day an adventure. Katsuhide Yagata, a MAT student from Japan notes, "I’m really excited because here at SIT I can expose myself to real intercultural interchange. It is wonderful that I can communicate with people from over 60 countries every day. I believe life at SIT is going to be a precious experience for me as a teacher and as a person. I’m very proud to be studying at SIT."

Of course, each student must also battle with the traditional issues of relocating to Brattleboro...Students living on campus are meeting their dorm-mates and floor-mates, figuring out where the laundry is, scurrying off to the IC so as not to miss a meal, trying not to mess up the whole composting/ recycling system, and asking their RAs, "Why is it again that we can't microwave popcorn in the dorms?" Students living off campus are busy trying to get their water turned on, their internet service installed, and figuring out where the Co-Op is. And there is the ever-present universal question: Where exactly are the fun places to hang out downtown?

As we, the next group of SIT hopefuls, discover the answers to all our burning questions and stumble along towards successful completion of our first week here, we find ourselves more bonded with each passing day. The unions forming among us are clearly seen as we take care of each other in small ways and large ones...even evident as students climbed on a hike up Mount Wantastiquet, when no student was left unaccompanied on the hike, no matter how far behind the crowd they got. What a testament and happy portent of the year to come! No matter how tough the year gets, how the work mounts up, we at SIT will take care of each other, look out for and support one another. Indeed, the extraordinary blend of peace, kindness, cultures, talents, history, and skills is what will make this year at SIT absolutely unforgettable.

Chantal Sheehan is currently enrolled in the Master of Science in Management concentration of the Program in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management. Chantal just moved to campus from Florida and will be working with the Communications and Marketing Department of World Learning as a work-study student and roving reporter during the 07/08 academic year. To contact Chantal, email chantal.sheehan@mail.sit.edu