Facilitator Corner: Kevin Sander
Read about the experiences of one of our amazing volunteer student leaders!
FIUTS Facilitators are student leaders from all over the world who welcome new international visitors, help to organize events, and lead activities for hundreds of students each quarter. Read on to find out more about the FIUTS facilitator experience from Kevin!
Name: Kevin Sander
Country: USA
Major: International Studies, Chinese Language
Class: Senior
FIUTS Facilitator Since: August 2014
Introduction
My dad was in the Navy, so as a kid I had the opportunity to live in a lot of different places around the U.S., but of all the places I’ve lived, Seattle was the one that made me feel most at home. After graduating from a Virginia high school in 2011, I came back to Seattle to study at the UW and am now majoring in International Studies and Chinese Language. I hope to use the knowledge and skills I am developing at the UW to create opportunities for myself to travel more overseas and expand my experiences beyond North America. Being a FIUTS facilitator has been a great step in that direction as I meet and learn from people from all over the world.
What does it mean to be a FIUTS facilitator?
Finding your place in a new community is hard; finding your place whilst overcoming language and culture barriers is harder. As a facilitator, I feel like I can help make that process a little easier for international students coming to UW. Being a facilitator is as simple as being friendly and being helpful, but the impact that can have on helping someone find their bearings in a new place is huge. I know from my own time studying abroad that having an organization like FIUTS that does so much to host events and connect new students to current ones goes a long way in making the experience a positive one, so being a part of that here in Seattle has been incredibly gratifying.
Favorite FIUTS anecdote as a facilitator
Kevin (second from left) with fellow facilitators at the Portland Global Getaway
Our first day on the Portland Global Getaway was a mess due to a massive rainstorm. The other facilitators and I had planned on going to Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square to kick off the Christmas season with thousands of Portland natives as they sang carols and lit up a massive douglas fir, but the weather made many of the participants hesitant. As Sascha, Omar, and I led the participants to the square, the rain and wind really picked up and began to shake everyone’s resolve. Some questioned if the trip was worth it. We stopped under an overhang and gave a short, rousing speech about life in the northwest – about how sometimes we just have to accept the rain and go through with our plans anyway – and encouraged them to stay the course. I couldn’t have been more impressed with how quickly everyone rallied, flipping their attitudes around and choosing to march all the way downtown through the storm in good spirits. By the time the Christmas festivities started, the rain had letup anyway and everyone had a great time. It was a perfect example of how bearing through the rain is usually worth it in the end.
Tips/comments for peer facilitators
It’s OK not to know things. By this I mean three things:
1) If you don’t know the answer to a question, just say so. The number one thing I end up doing as a facilitator is answer questions, so inevitably some will come along that stump me. Most questions are pretty simple (e.g. where is a good place to get groceries? Which buses go downtown?), but you are dealing with a multidisciplinary group of international students, so you just never know what is going to be thrown at you (e.g. can you tell me anything about the working conditions of female Latin-American migrant workers? Why do you say everyone “is” excited; shouldn’t it be everyone “are” excited?). Luckily, there are almost always other facilitators and FIUTS staff around, so don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
2) If you have questions, ask them. As a FIUTS facilitator, you have the opportunity to interact with people from all over the world, so try to make the most of it. Sure, you might feel stupid asking someone to describe where they are from on a map because you really didn’t know where Brunei was, but you’ll feel really smart at next Thanksgiving’s game of Trivial Pursuit when you can name all three countries that divide the island of Borneo.
3) Don’t pass up on an opportunity because you feel like you don’t know enough. You should still lead a campus tour or facilitate an event to a place you have never gone to. As a facilitator, your main job is to facilitate interaction anyway, so it’s ok if you don’t have specific knowledge about an event. Plus, you will probably be surprised at how much you do know and at how much you learn in the process. And like I said earlier if you get questions that you can’t answer, that’s fine too – just find someone else to pass the question off to.
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Learn more about the FIUTS Facilitator program here!