As we begin a new year of learning, discovery, and connection, I am delighted to welcome our students, scholars, faculty, staff, and colleagues back to campus. The University of Rochester is enriched by the many perspectives, cultures, experiences, and ideas that make up our global community.
I am especially pleased to welcome our international students and scholars, both those joining us for the first time and those returning for another year. Your presence strengthens URochester and expands the ways we learn, collaborate, and engage with the world. You are an important and valued part of our community.
International Students and Scholars: Support and Success
Supporting our international students and scholars is a shared responsibility. Their success depends not only on strong academic and research opportunities, but also on creating an environment in which they can navigate the University of Rochester with confidence, build community, and grow.
This year, I encourage all of us to continue advancing best practices for supporting international populations, including:
- Creating a welcoming environment from day one. Clear communication and intentional opportunities to connect can make an enormous difference in helping international students and scholars feel that they are part of the community.
- Making information accessible and understandable. URochester processes can be complex, particularly when they involve unfamiliar systems, terminology, or cultural expectations. We should communicate clearly and proactively, with an awareness of different educational and cultural backgrounds.
- Providing coordinated support. International students and scholars often interact with multiple campus offices. Collaboration across units helps reduce barriers, avoid duplication, and ensure that individuals know where to turn for assistance.
- Building intercultural understanding. Every member of our URochester community benefits when we create opportunities to learn from one another and engage across cultures.
Our commitment should be not simply to help international students and scholars navigate the University, but to ensure they have the opportunity to flourish here.
A Year of Possibilities …
The year ahead will bring new challenges but also tremendous opportunities. Let us approach them with curiosity, generosity, and a spirit of collaboration. Let us be willing to learn from one another, ask questions, cross boundaries, disciplinary, cultural, geographic, and intellectual, and imagine what is possible when we work together.
Global engagement is ultimately about people and relationships. It is about creating connections across borders and cultures, expanding how we understand the world, and preparing our students and scholars to contribute meaningfully to an increasingly interconnected world.
I invite each of you to be an active participant in this global community. Welcome someone new. Learn from a perspective different from your own. Build a partnership across campus or across borders. Share your knowledge and make space for others to share theirs.
Thank you for the many ways you contribute to making the University of Rochester a place where people from around the world can learn, discover, connect, and succeed. Welcome to the new academic year. May it be a year of discovery, belonging, collaboration, and possibility. Together, may we continue to build a global community where everyone can thrive.
Meliora!
Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela, Ph.D
Vice Provost for Global Engagement
Professor, Warner School of Education & Human Development