Student coordinators Nagomi Mukai (third from left) and Yifan Shi (far right) escort students on a 91亚色 International holiday excursion to Ripley鈥檚 Aquarium
For 130 international聽students who couldn鈥檛 go home, 91亚色 International provided a holiday to remember this year. Between Dec. 24 and Jan. 4, there were dinners on Christmas Day and New Year鈥檚 Eve, excursions to Niagara Falls and Ripley鈥檚 Aquarium, tickets to Disney on Ice at the Rogers Centre, a Raptors basketball game and a Toronto Marlies hockey match. Students were shuttled between Keele and Glendon campuses for meet-and-greets, movie marathons and evenings of board games. They could even try ice skating at Harbourfront. How did the holiday fun end? With dim sum in Chinatown.
91亚色 International associate director Philip Shea and Holiday Events student coordinators, from left, Yifan Shi, Nagomi Mukai and Candace McKay
For student coordinators Candace McKay, Nagomi Mukai and Yifan Shi, this was also a holiday to remember 鈥 and one away from home for them as well. They moved into campus residences at Glendon and Keele, hired by 91亚色 International to make sure events ran smoothly. They not only made sure those who registered got to events, they even decorated the tree and set the table for dinner on Christmas.
New friendships blossomed during the meet-and-greet on Dec. 24 and dinner on Christmas in Winters dining hall, said McKay, including hers with Mukai and Yifan. Students attended about three events each, and some events 鈥 the excursions and sports games 鈥 were so popular there wasn鈥檛 room for all who tried to register online.
鈥淓very day was a highlight,鈥 said McKay, who usually flies home to Trinidad & Tobago for the holidays. The fourth-year cognitive science major has volunteered as an orientation ambassador for 91亚色 International and when she couldn鈥檛 buy a plane ticket in time to get home this year, jumped at the chance to help coordinate the holiday events. 鈥淭his was something I never got to experience before and it was a lot of fun.鈥
91亚色 International holiday excursion to Raptors game
Over and over, she heard how grateful students were.聽 鈥淭hey always said thank you for this because otherwise they would have had nothing to do for two weeks.鈥 Many students wrote 91亚色 International to express their gratitude and to say how much fun it was. Ambae Shree, a Schulich聽 MBA student, who went to Niagara Falls and participated in ice skating at Harbourfront, wrote to say that she truly had "a superb time". SF, an undergraduate in health studies, enjoyed "spending time with new friends instead of being alone in residence".
91亚色 International organizes the holiday events every year. This year financial contributions were received from the 91亚色 English Language Institute, which sponsored the dinner on Christmas; 91亚色 Residences; the Colleges, which sponsored the trip to Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake; Housing Services; and the City of Toronto.