Adrienne Kim Bird is assistant director of International Students and Scholars Program at UVA. At the start of a new academic year, she spoke about the new programs and transitions at the International Students and Scholars Program.

Sidharth Singh is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the Mechanical and Aerospace Department at UVA and is working on changing how international students are onboarded. He is hoping that sharing experiences of other graduate student experiences and faculty will be helpful. Singh explains the reasons he is interested in this topic and how he is building the panel.

22 International students and scholar athletes presented their projects they worked on in the 2022-2023 Citizen Leaders Fellowship program.

Human Biology major Hamna Shafiq was fueled by her personal experiences to pursue studies in global health. Now a third-year, she is primed for medical school through her research in undernutrition in vulnerable global populations.

Eren Okandan is a third-year student majoring in global public health who loves to read crime fiction, and follows sports such as Formula 1, soccer, basketball, and football. Originally from Kayseri, Turkey, a city located in central Anatolia, Okandan has been helping raise awareness about the recent deadly earthquake in Turkey that has claimed more than 50,000 people.

International student and researcher Adrián Gutierrez speaks to UVA Global about muons, his journey to UVA, and his advice for international students.

The International Student Citizen Leaders Fellowship has chosen a new cohort of fellows for this academic year.

UVA PhD Candidate Josué Godoy talks with UVA Global's Emily Mellen about his project on Indigenous activism in Colombia during the 1970s.

Robyn Hadley, Vice President and Dean of Students Chief Student Affairs Officer along with Ambassador Steve Mull, Vice Provost for Global Affairs reach out to the Indian Community

Robyn Hadley, Vice President and Dean of Students Chief Student Affairs Officer along with Ambassador Steve Mull, Vice Provost for Global Affairs reach out to South Korean community

Elizabeth Wittner has run a volunteer-led program for English speaking and intercultural exchange since 1999 but notices serious interest from students who want to help in the last couple of years after the pandemic.This year, she says, more than 400 volunteers applied to the program, which is a part of the Center for American English Language and Culture (CAELC). She and her team were able to place 352 volunteers in various capacities.

PhD candidate and international student Mukti Chowkwale talks with us about her research in Biomedical Engineering, her advocacy for international students and DEI at UVA, and advice for new international students.

Trisha Gulati is one of the co-directors of international student affairs on UVA Student Council. When she is not attending classes, she likes to play Tennis and sing. Along with the Student Council, she is also actively engaged in the Thai Student Organization, International Relations Organization and Frank Batten Investment Fund.

On August 16th, as UVA’s campus slowly wakes up from its summer slumber, a group of volunteers in baby blue shirts run out in the rain to greet a bus arriving from Dulles airport. These are the Global Greeters, UVA’s welcoming committee for international students.

Jie Lu is a second-year student majoring in Commerce. But she is also a stellar table tennis player who just represented UVA in National Championships.

Fourth year international student Sara Feng introduces us to Shea House, a UVA’s on-grounds residential site for immersion in seven languages. She talks about her global experiences and why she became a Shea House language assistant.

International students Abbis Haider Jaffri, Hamed Joodaki, and Huiru Shen talk about their UVA experience, future plans, and advice for new international students.

In a conversation, Elizabeth Wittner, Academic Director and ITA Program Coordinator describes this unique program at UVA and how it provides support to international members, promotes global experiences, and fosters intercultural skills and perspectives at UVA.

While cases of the coronavirus are showing a promising downward trend in the United States, other parts of the world are grappling with crippling surges, most heartbreakingly in India, where each hour brings even more alarming news about the pandemic’s devastating effects

This week the U.S. State Department announced full-time international students will be exempt from current border restrictions preventing travelers from China, Europe’s Schengen Zone, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, and South Africa from entering the United States, and there are indications that U.S. consulates in these locations will resume visa processing as soon as early May.

From the beginning of the pandemic over a year ago, there has been an alarming and misguided tendency of some to blame and attack members of America’s Asian-Pacific community, including assaults on the streets, bullying in schools and on playgrounds, and hateful rhetoric from political leaders, creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.

Zhihan Yang (David) is a third-year international student from China and Chair of the UVA Student Council International Student Affairs Committee.

Nancy Huai is a first year MBA student at Darden School of Business from China. During the pandemic with the embassy closures, she was unable to get a visa from China to come to Charlottesville.

Few elections have had more significant implications for the future of America’s engagement with the world, including in the field of higher education, than this year’s just-concluded ballot. 

As programs moved to online and virtual worlds due to the pandemic, CAELC’S Volunteers with International Students, Staff, and Scholars (VISAS) Program is keeping up with the changes.

Ahana Das, a first-year student at the Darden School of Business talks about starting at University of Virginia in the middle of a pandemic, her journey to the Grounds, and her hopes for the coming year.

As we get ready for the fall semester, International Students and Scholars Program has been keeping up to date with the rules and regulations and want to share it with our community.

Here are the key highlights from this month.

America’s higher education community faced a new challenge to our global mission this month with the announcement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that international students would be denied visas or face deportation if they did not participate in some in-person study this fall, regardless of public health guidelines aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

Frisbees and balls flew across the Nau/Gibson courtyard amidst sounds of lively conversation and the drifting smell of Pearl Island’s Caribbean fare.

Matias Vilaplana Stark is a doctorate student in McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia.

A group of smiling faces clusters around the freshly painted Beta Bridge.

Avni Garg is the co-director for the international student affairs agency on student council. A third-year UVA student, she is double majoring in Computer Science and Economics and also volunteering as a VISAS language consultant.