What English Language Students Tell Us

By Sylvia Shipp, ELP Lecturer and Student AdvisorWhat can be described as beautiful, quiet, and wonderful? To give a clue, it’s a place with a tight-knit community where a lot of fun events take place, where squirrels roam free, and teachers are excellent. These are just a few of the ways our international students describe Chatham University. Chatham is a very friendly campus with a big heart that works hard to create opportunities for domestic and international students to mix with one another. These opportunities include sports, art, poetry, movies, volunteering, cultural excursions, and more; everything a student dreams a university will have.Chatham ELP students come from countries far and wide, such as China, Colombia, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, and Vietnam. Some of the fun things they have mentioned doing lately include trying out the many excellent restaurants, visiting Pittsburgh's world-class museums, reading English books, watching movies at the theater, shopping, hanging out with new friends, traveling to other nearby cities like New York and Washington DC, and taking part in cultural events such as pumpkin carving.Experiences Chatham ELP students are looking forward to doing during the winter break include visiting exciting destinations like Disneyworld in Florida, Philadelphia, and Boston. Others plan to spend the holidays with their American friends.Recent achievements come in all shapes and sizes. Some students have expressed excitement at having finished their first English novel. Another is proud of opening a bank account on her own. Some achievements are more academically oriented. One student announced she just completed a 1,000-word essay, while another said her presentation skills have dramatically improved. A hearty congratulation goes to Hao (Bruce) Liang, who is excited about his acceptance to the University of Tennessee. Xinran Chen and Sanja Golalic will start their degree program at Chatham after completing the English Language Program this fall. Congratulations to Xinran and Sanja!