Student: Jenai Cave
Major: Mechanical Engineering, BA ’25
Country: Trinidad and Tobago
As an international student coming from Trinidad and Tobago, my transition to Temple was quite challenging at first, but it became easier as the year went by. Follow these tips to ease your own transition.
- Join Clubs. Temple has many clubs (330+) where you can meet students who come from the same or similar background to you. Joining clubs is an easy way to connect with people of your culture, which is especially nice if you’re missing home. Also, being a member of a Temple club is a great way to make friends overall.
- Connect to other students in your classes. Class is the easiest place to make friends. No matter what year you’re in, everyone is always down with meeting new people. You might be scared at first, but once you get past introducing yourself, the fear that’s in your head fades away.
- Talk to your professors. As an international student it can be especially intimidating asking questions during class, I found that going to office hours was helpful for me.
- Invest in pots and pans. I lost so much weight my first year on campus as the food in the dining halls wasn’t what I was used to, which led me to spend countless nights eating mac and cheese from 7-Eleven. Having pots and pans would’ve come in handy when I felt like making some home-cooked meals that I could’ve prepared using the community kitchen in my dorm.
- Buy a pair of cheap sneakers for walking around campus. Coming from an island, I would mostly wear sandals and slippers which isn’t practical for walking around the city of Philadelphia.
- Bring an umbrella. For some odd reason we find it so embarrassing to use an umbrella, but I’d rather not sit in class in drenched, cold clothes.
Photo courtesy of Jenai Cave