The goal of International Student Ambassador Program is to promote the English Language Program and Chatham University to the world. Volunteers are committed to spending at least 8 hours a semester on different activities.

The activities you can do include:

1. sending email about Chatham to your friends and family
2. posting information about the ELP and Chatham on social media
3. promoting the ELP Referral Program
4. sharing pictures to be posted on the OIA’s Facebook page
5. writing for the International Affairs blog
6. meeting at least once a month to develop other ideas to promote the ELP and Chatham

The benefits to you include:

1. opportunities to interact regularly with other students
2. building your resume for future employment
3. receiving money to organize events

In the spring 2017, 11 international student ambassadors created a wonderful video about Chatham. We also did many things together, including going to TEDxCMU.

August brought the end to the summer semester in the English Language Program and marked an exciting beginning of a new academic year for all. With a strong commitment to promoting global understanding, facilitating intercultural interactions, and creating opportunities for language learning, the Office of International Affairs is delighted to announce various programs for students and the Chatham community.

Some highlights include:

1. A Conversation Partner Program: Apply for a conversation partner to practice your target language and exchange cultures.

2. Weekly International Conversation Hour on Thursdays: Come to Coolidge 037 to just talk and participate in communication tasks.

3. International Student Ambassador Program : Volunteer to be an international student ambassador. Email lphung@chatham.edu to volunteer.

4. Various field strips and events throughout the semester: Visit My Happenings for specific events.

5. International Student Success Series on Tuesdays : Email k.emory@chatham.eduf or more information.

6. Global Focus events throughout the year: Visit the Global Focus website.

7. Study abroad and international scholarships sessions: Email kchipman@chatham.edu for more information.

8. ELP Referral Program: Refer a student and receive a $50 gift card

We wish you a productive and meaningful semester and academic year! If you have questions or comments, please write to internationalaffairs@chatham.edu or visit us in the ground floor of Falk and Coolidge.

By Nagisa Fujimoto, ELP Student

Dear fellow women citizens and those who want to overcome gender-based discrimination.

Last year, The World Economic Forum proclaimed that Japan was 111th out of 144 countries in The Global Gender Gap Index. The Global Gender Gap Index is an index designed to measure gender equality. I was shocked at the ranking because not only was it our home country but also a country with strong economic power.

I am a student now, so I feel less discrimination against women compared to working women or married women. However, in 3 years I will go into the workforce, and I will probably face some detrimental treatment based on gender. If you are a student like me, you really need to know that even today a lot of women continue to fight for equality. If you are working, you need to think again whether your workplace does actualize equality of women and men. If you are a homemaker, you need to reimagine if you are sharing the housework equally with your husband.

Before I talk about the issue in Japan, I’d like to ask you some questions. Do you have stereotypes toward women or men? Or have you ever felt that stereotypes are obstacles in your life? As a typical example, women should be quieter and submissive, or women should cook and do homemaking. On the other hand, men should not shed tears and should be assertive or don’t have to do homemaking and raise their children. These kinds of stereotypes make it harder for us women to work, or they sometimes make us uncomfortable in our daily life. But also, some men feel stressed about stereotypes toward them. We women tend to expect men to be strong or be good at math, but again those are stereotypes.

In Japan, pay gaps between men and women are widening, and it would be difficult for women to return to their workplace when they got married or delivered a baby. The Japanese government is struggling to fix these problems, but the gap still does not close.

Another remarkable thing is the low representation of women in politics. According to a survey, the proportion of women politicians in global average is about 22 percent while the one in Japan is about 8 percent. I wonder when the first female prime minister will be elected in Japan.

We need to think not only about the workplace issues, but also domestic ones. In Japan, a division of labor by gender is still strongly rooted; men work outside and women work inside. This idea is also a stereotype, but it is not rational and fair for both women and men. It is sad that we are assumed what we must do by our gender.

I hope that women keep seeking gender equality and do not abandon the hope for it. Gender equality means that we have a right to be provided various opportunities in life regardless of our gender and we should be able to achieve opportunities for self-realization.

Let us aspire to be whatever we want to be. We can be a doctor, a politician, a scientist, police officer, and a lawyer. Let us speak out if our boss runs over us because we are a woman. Let us say to our husband to become more active in caring for our children. Some women strike a balance between child raising and work, but it is mentally and physically demanding and they often need the assistance of their husband. Let us ask our husbands to cook or make our children’s lunches. No rules exist that the mother or wife must prepare meals. And let’s try to view ourselves as human beings, not only as women or men. Let’s break free from an island of gender segregation and begin to walk a road of gender equality.

By Rumi Horibe, ELP Student

Do you know what day December 1^st is? It is “World AIDS Day.” And it is an international day for people in the world to commemorate people who died with AIDS and support people living with HIV. Wearing a Red ribbon means you have no bias about HIV and AIDS.

By the way, how much knowledge do you have about HIV? Some people may have the following prejudices:

It infects with a handshake and a conversation with people having HIV. It infects when you enter the same bath or pool with HIV people. It infects when you use the same daily necessities as them such as toilet, dishes, and towels. It infects by getting bit by a mosquito that sucked their blood.

All of these are wrong. There are only three infection routes of HIV: sexual contact, blood infection, and mother-to-child transmission. So, what I want to point out is “HIV does not infect by contact in daily life”. Even if someone is infected with HIV, early detection and early treatment make it possible to suppress the onset of AIDS.

However, many people living with HIV in the world still have been discriminated against because of the incorrect knowledge at work, in school, and in the community. Some people are scared of infected people and are looking at them with contempt.

In fact, the place with most discrimination against HIV are medical and welfare places. In Japan, a case which a dental clinic in Kochi prefecture refused treatment for HIV-positive people was widely reported in 2014. Surprisingly, according to the data from 50 countries, it shows that one in eight people living with HIV have been denied healthcare in the hospital. People with HIV have been biased not only by ordinary people but also by medical personnel.

Moreover, it is thought that the socially vulnerable including black people, gay, transgender, drug users, and sex workers are the main infected persons. Some people seem to regard HIV as the result of evil and corrupt life. In 2013 in Japan, a man who had been doing job hunting honestly confirmed that “I had HIV” in an interview because he was worried that other people might be infected through injuries. Then, the person in charge of the interview asked mercilessly, “Why did you get HIV?”, “Are you a gay person?” No matter how many times he explained “if I continue to drink medicine, AIDS will be suppressed”, he could not get an understanding. “I felt frustrated and I never forgot that cold gaze.”, he said.

In this way, many HIV people have been taken away from human rights due to wrong knowledge and prejudice. They are suffering not only physical pain, but also mentally.

Do you know these facts?  Let’s help people with HIV together.

Everyone has equal rights to live freely and humanly. Everyone has an equal right to take the same treatment in the hospital and get a job. I want to insist again, “HIV has never infected by contact in daily life.” Let’s spread correct knowledge about HIV and fight against biases of HIV.

Also, let’s not forget the date of December 1st. It’s time to unite together with wearing a Red ribbon. It’s time to give a hand to people with HIV and help them from mountains of despair.

I hope December 1st will be a more important day for us to consider HIV and AIDS. With a Red ribbon, I think we will be able to go hand in hand together with people living with HIV.

By Sarah Bangley, Chatham Undergraduate Student, ELP Intern

Every year, students from around the world come to study at Chatham through the English Language Program. I recently sat down with students from Vietnam, Mali, Saudi Arabia, and India to discuss their experiences at Chatham.

We began our discussion with some of the differences between Chatham and their home school. The buildings on Chatham’s campus were a particular focus of comparison. A student who wished to remain anonymous said, “In Vietnam, we have to study in a small school. We don’t even have a student lounge. There are not as many buildings as here.” Hassana, from Mali, added, “Here, it is more developed than my school— for example, the computer and projector. In my home, it is just starting to be developed.” Bholika shared a larger-scale comparison of school systems: “In India, we have four year undergraduate programs and two year Master’s programs. Admission is based on 12-standard score— if we have a good score, we can go to a good university. But here, you can go to any school you want.”

I asked each of them about the issues they faced when speaking English. They expressed their own personal difficulties. The student from Vietnam told me, “When I want to talk with someone, but I will think in Vietnamese first.” Hassana encountered a similar issue: “[English] is kind of like French, but not really. I still pronounce some words like French.” For Bholika, English slang proved to be a hurdle, especially when she couldn’t find the meaning through Google. Abdullah, from Saudi Arabia, mentioned a class he took to help with that issue: “I went to Point Park and took an idiom class, and actually it’s helpful when people speak, like “piece of cake.” I didn’t understand idioms before.”

On the topic of idioms, two students provided me with sayings from their home countries. In Vietnam, they say: “Mot hon da trung hai con nhan,” which is similar to the English idiom “hit two birds with one stone.” Bholika told me, “One of the best idioms about mom is: ‘Ma te ma bija badha vagda na va.’ It means something like without mom you cannot do anything. Mom is the best character in your life.”

Although ELP students came here to study, they also find time to have fun. We talked about their favorite activities both on and off campus. All of them happily mentioned the field trips they took to visit some of Pittsburgh’s landmarks. Bholika in particular enjoyed museums. She said, “I like to visit museums, because I really want to know about your culture, and from museums, I can know something about your culture.” She recently visited the Andy Warhol museum. The student from Vietnam said she liked to go to the cinema for fun. “I watch cartoon movies— especially cartoon movies, like Meet the Robinsons, Finding Nemo, and Finding Dory.”

But for all the work ELP students put in, they still feel disconnected from Chatham’s community. Some only had friends within the English Language Program; others had brief encounters with other Chatham students. Hassana mentioned, “I haven’t had any trouble with the students. They are all friendly. Because I am from Africa, they are interested in my customs.” But Abdullah told me, “The other students don’t talk with me. I guess they don’t want to lose their time.” Part of this disconnect stems from the amount of time the ELP students spend here— the student from Vietnam had only spent three or four months at Chatham.

So what can we do as fellow Chatham students to include these lively, diverse voices in our community? Start small: take time to say hello to international students! Attend events hosted by International Affairs. Even better, become a conversation partner through ELP! In the brief time I spent chatting with these students, I brushed the surface of a vast pool of fascinating experiences just waiting to be shared. I hope future ELP students will have a chance to share their perspectives with the greater Chatham community.

By Marina Razgarina, ELP Lecturer

Delicate, surreal, and incredibly personal. Noor’s drawings make you reflect deeply on what it is you see in them and what is left beyond your comprehension of a mere visitor in her mysterious artistic world. Going beyond the obvious, they make you think of ideas and emotions she felt while drawing those. They make you wonder about the people and stories that left a trace in her heart and found embodiment in these incredible pieces.

Seeing her art brought me closer to understanding Noor’s life and personality. It made me see her not just as a student, but also as an incredibly talented person with her own goals, dreams, and struggles. Noor’s self-expression became her artistic aspiration. Genuine and complex emotions expressed so intricately in her drawings left me feeling sensitive and vulnerable in a whole new way. The way Noor shared herself and her world through her drawings touched my heart and made me open to deeper connections with the world and people around me. It truly was extraordinary and profound experience.