{"id":11861,"date":"2024-08-15T13:39:30","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T13:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/?p=11861"},"modified":"2025-05-15T15:49:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T15:49:43","slug":"furmans-international-student-orientation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/furmans-international-student-orientation\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman’s International Student Orientation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet Vuyo<\/h2>\n

Hello, my name is Vuyo Mkhatshwa, I’m an international student from Eswatini. I’m a rising
\njunior majoring in Mathematics<\/a> and Economics<\/a> with a Data analytics<\/a> minor and in this blog, ill be relaying
\nmy experience with international student orientation – one of the resources we have as international students at Furman.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Flag of Eswatini<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All About International Student Orientation<\/h2>\n

Furman University offers a multitude of opportunities for international students to settle in
\nquickly, including the international student orientation, which takes place a week before Fall
\norientation. Arriving a week earlier helped me, as well as many other international students,
\nget acclimated to the beautiful campus and navigate a new country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Learning More About Culture<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n

During this orientation, we learned about \u2018southern hospitality\u2019 and other norms and customs
\nunique to Greenville, SC<\/a>, which have proved helpful during my time here. For instance, I learned
\nthat Southerners will always smile and greet you as you walk by as a sign of politeness, and they
\nalways hold the door for the next person\u2014things I\u2019ve come to love during my time at Furman.
\nWe also got to set up our banking accounts, obtain social security numbers, receive free Ubers to
\ntravel around town to get supplies, and meet with international upperclassmen who gave us tips
\non thriving as international students at Furman.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Creating Meaningful Relationships<\/h3>\n

This orientation was also where we met other international students and formed
\nbonds that created a support structure, helping us cope with homesickness or any issues arising
\nfrom being newcomers in a new environment.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Students participating in the 2021 International Student Orientation<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Students exploring downtown Greenville during International Orientation.<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to this orientation, we have had excursions together as internationals that help us
\nexplore the local Greenville area and nearby cities. One memorable experience was visiting a
\nnearby orchard in North Carolina, where we learned about the history of the expansive citrus
\nfarm and tried their breathtaking citrus donuts, which I still crave to this day.<\/p>\n

There are many more opportunities for international students at Furman, but I’ll leave those for
\nyou to discover without spoiling too much of the fun on the horizon. Overall, I enjoyed the
\ninternational student orientation and am excited to see what the future cohort of global scholars
\nwill bring to Furman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet Vuyo Hello, my name is Vuyo Mkhatshwa, I’m an international student from Eswatini. I’m a rising junior majoring in Mathematics and Economics with a Data analytics minor and in this blog, ill be relaying my experience with international student orientation – one of the resources we have as international students at Furman.   All […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11861"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11881,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11861\/revisions\/11881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}