Global Ambassadors Incoming Team Represent Twelve Countries and Broad Diversity of Majors
Undergraduate and graduate student GAs for 2022-23 are ready to welcome incoming international students to the University of Arizona!
With Commencement 2022 now behind us, we are looking forward and planning for the next cohort of international students who will be arriving from around the world before we know it!
The University of Arizona expects to welcome over 3000 new and returning international students to our main campus in Tucson for the 2022-23 academic school year, from nearly 100 countries.
These students bring new perspectives to our community and to our classrooms and add to the marvelous diversity that the University is committed to advancing.
International students can face some unique adjustments as they acclimatize to the different educational and cultural experience of living in the United States.
"The International Student Services team at UArizona is dedicated to helping those students orient themselves in both legal and practical ways, from visas and housing to advising and tutoring, as well as in social and emotional ways, from welcome and orientation to outings and friendship-building opportunities," said Noelle Sallaz, associate director of International Student Services.
Within the framework of their support system, International Student Services (ISS) has created the Global Ambassador (GA) program – a selected group of students who connect international students to the campus and community by providing peer advising, friendship, and activities throughout the year for the international student community, from short-term exchange students to those seeking undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Applications for GA positions are held in February. Each year, from the dozens of students who apply to this leadership program, ISS selects a diverse team of GAs to create a supportive network of international and local students.
At a luncheon attended by past, current, and future GAs, the group said goodbye to the 2021-22 team, including two recently-profiled graduating Senior Global Ambassadors, Ola Allababidi and Jiten Baid, and welcomed the new team that will begin working with students as soon as this summer to start supporting the incoming class through pre-arrival webinars and at the Global Orientation sessions.
The new team of fifteen Global Ambassadors includes undergraduates and graduate students from twelve different countries, with a broad diversity of majors:
- Amy He | Xi'an, China | Psychological Sciences and Neuroscience
- Aunita Hakimi | Esfahan, Iran | Biology (Biomedical Sciences Emphasis)
- Dennis Zhuang | China | Film and Television
- Diana Avdeeva | Moscow, Russia | Russian and East European Studies
- Eugenie Panafieu | Aix-en-Provence, France | Nursing
- Harry Tran | Vung Tau, Vietnam | Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Hina Goto | Tokyo, Japan | Physics, Astronomy
- Jose Tamburini | Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic | Statistics and Data Science
- Nguyen Dang | Saigon, Vietnam | Food Safety
- Osama Ba Hamid | Hadramout, Yemen | Mechanical Engineering
- Shifat Hossain | Bangladesh | Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Molecular and Cellular Biology
- Souhayla Farag | Cairo, Egypt | Architecture
- Sultan Munir | Lahore, Pakistan | Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Tala Alsaedi | Saudi Arabia | Aerospace Engineering
- Zain Hassan | Lahore, Pakistan | Molecular and Cellular Biology
The 2022-23 Global Ambassadors are already training in peer support skills and recently participated in some team-building activities that included a ropes course at Rincon Vista Sports Complex in Tucson.
With the Global Center as home base for programs, many events take place around campus and in the surrounding Tucson community, providing a great introduction to places to visit and how to get around. Global Ambassadors host regular outings such as shopping trips to the mall and Lee Lee International Supermarket. They organize hikes to popular trails like Sabino Canyon, and visits to the iconic and world-renowned Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
Every two weeks, Global Ambassadors host Study @ Global in the Global Center Lounge. It's an opportunity to find a study buddy, grab a snack and get some homework done.
Monthly Coffee @ Global gatherings in the Global Center Courtyard are scheduled throughout the academic calendar year.
Global Ambassadors also run the Buddy Program, which is open to all enrolled Main Campus University of Arizona students and J-1 student interns, and which connects international students through events and activities that the team coordinates each semester.
Students who would like to join the Buddy Program can find more information and links here. Buddies use Discord as their primary messaging platform to find out about upcoming events, connect with other students, and share memes.
International Student Services and Global Ambassador events will be posted to the Programs & Events page on our website, here.
