We’re Hiring New International Peer Mentors for 2019-20!!!

Position Description

International Peer Mentors for International Student & Scholar Services

International Student and Scholar Services, a unit of the Office of International Affairs, is seeking mentors to help transition new international students into the University of Oregon through a series of activities that support academic and cultural integration. Serving as an International Peer Mentor is an opportunity to develop and enhance leadership cultural competency skills. The commitment is June-December 2019. Some mentors may continue with the program from January-June 2020 depending on program needs.

Throughout the International Peer Mentor Program (IPMP), mentors will serve in the following capacity:

  • Serve as orientation leaders at International Student Orientation for fall term
  • Serve as a resource by introducing students to campus services

Compensation:

Peer Mentor positions are valuable leadership opportunities that allow them to grow, learn, and engage with students from different countries and cultures. Time commitment for the program will vary based on individual mentors’ styles and interests. The peer mentor positions are not paid positions. However, should funding for the 2019-20 year provide, peer mentors will be given a modest stipend for their service.

Mentoring Requirements

(Must be able to participate in the following required interviews, trainings, or events)

May 2019

  • Monday, April 22 – April 26, 2019 – Individual Interviews
  • Weeknight in May – IPMP Group Interviews (details to come depending on student and program staff availability)

September 2019

  • Tuesday, September 17, 2019 – IPMP & ISO Training
  • Wednesday, September 18, 2019 – IPMP & ISO Training
  • Thursday, September 19, 2019 – Fall ISO
  • Friday, September 20, 2019 – Fall ISO
  • Saturday, September 21, 2019 – Fall ISO
  • Sunday, September 22, 2019 – Fall ISO
  • Monday, September 23, 2019 – Fall ISO
  • Tuesday, September 24, 2019 – Fall ISO

Peer Mentor Meetings – to be scheduled for fall term by lead mentors and program coordinator.

Applications are open from March 29- April 12, 2019. Applicants will be required to participate in a group interview during spring term. Interested students must fill out an application and send an updated resume to intlpeers@uoregon.edu. Questions, please contact Sharece Bunn, IPMP Director at sharece@uoregon.edu.

 

It’s Time for Taxes!

Hi IPMs!

It’s tax season! Just so you know, your IPMP stipends are considered payment for services and thus can be taxed! For this reason, it’s time for some tax help!

First, off, all of you should plan to submit your taxes by the deadline of April 15, 2019. I’m not

going to give advice for domestic students on how to file taxes, but I would recommend you use VITA support if you’d like help. International students can use VITA support as well! 🙂

For those of you who are considered international students, you will be filing non-resident tax forms. ISSS has a blog to help with this: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/itax/. Please use it! It shows you how to fill out the 8843, the 1040NR-EZ, and even the Oregon Form 40N.

This page is incredibly helpful and walks you through EVERY step! 🙂

You’ll need either your social security number or ITIN to help with the form. If, for some reason, you never received your ITIN, please contact me as soon as possible!

If you really don’t want to try this on your own with the instructions and would rather pay for help, check out the info for professional tax preparation.

Good luck!

Best,

Sharece

 

Week Nine Updates!

Hi International Peer Mentors!

Happy Week NINE!!!!

I’m writing with a few things:

  1. I think you are awesome! And, I appreciate all you have done to support one another and your peers this year!
  2. We have group meetings next week to wrap up this term! Please fill in the check-in form before the meeting!
  3. I will be sending out a feedback form to learn about how your experience was as a mentor. This will be coming out NEXT WEEK. Please make sure to fill it out!
  4. Your commitment with the IPMP is over at the end of this term! A few of you will be getting emails from me asking you to help with winter, spring, or summer, based on your interest, but as I’ve mentioned – we have very few students coming in so we don’t need as many mentors for the rest of the term.
  5. The lead mentors will still be serving in winter and spring term so they may reach out to your committees to help plan any events. Events will continue to happen as you all decide to stay involved. 😊 I’m hoping that you’ll have at least one event per term and will be supporting the lead mentors with some of the planning as they need.
  6. The stipend list has been sent to our accounting department, but they are not doing the payments until I get the W8BENs from the students who need them. If I sent you an email about this, please get it to me as soon as possible so I can process the stipends for the group!
  7. I’m working over winter break. If you’d like to meet with me for a 1-1 to check-in, please reach out! 😊

Thanks again! I look forward to seeing you next week!

Best,

Sharece M. Bunn

Date with your High-Five Buddy

At last, the instructions are here!!!

You should go on a date with your high-five buddy in the next seven days. The idea is that you’ll meet for at least an hour with that buddy to check in. Ask how they’re doing in classes. Find out how mentoring is going. Encourage them. Share about what’s new with you.

My suggestion is that you get together on campus for an event, go to coffee, or chill in the Mills for an hour. If you’re super adventurous and have time, definitely head off campus for an adventure.

You’ll need to do this BEFORE our meeting next Wednesday, November 7th. So message your high-five buddy today and make a plan.

Please, please, take a selfie of the two of you that we can post to social media! 🙂 You can send the pics to intlpeers@uoregon.edu or share them to the IPMP Work Folder.

There will be prizes for the Best Selfie, Most Creative Date, Most Chill Date, and Most Out There.

Have fun!!!

Best,

Sharece

Retreat to see the Timbers this Saturday – Confirming Attendees!

Hi IPMs!

Thanks to those of you who signed up to go to the IPMP Retreat to the Timbers game on September 29th!

Here’s the list of those who signed up: 

IPMs Attending the Timbers Game on September 29th!
Joey Lim
Remi Tanida
Rita Ran
Mohammed Zaidan
Mohammed Al Shaban
Deepika Viswanath
Qian Dang
Mounir Jamal
Jason John
Leah Cave
Guangcan Zhu (Jude)
Douglas Imaralu
Brian Sun
Shan Zhang
Jackson Huang
Mohammed Almuaishi
abdulrahman Buraqah
Keqing Sun

If someone else wants to go, you can sign up by registering online and paying for your admission! You can also invite friends to attend, if you’d like!

Best,

Sharece

What are Microaggressions?

At our training yesterday, Douglas and Ritu initiated a conversation about microaggressions. To follow up, I’d like to share a few resources Douglas wanted to pass on! First, here’s the [embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/intlpmp/files/2018/09/Microaggression-Chart-1pxk36c.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ] to understand a bit about what they’re about. In addition, here’s a video from Stanford about Microaggressions.

Thanks, all! Keep up the hard work this week!

Best,

Sharece

IPMP Care Report

If you’re concerned about a student’s health, well-being, academic success, etc, you will REPORT this issue of concern to the Office of International Affairs by completing the IPMP Care Report. Andrew (the Associate Director of ISSS) and I will have access to the form and will follow up with you or the student as we see fit. We appreciate all you’re doing to support your peers! 

Thanks! Please email me at sharece@uoregon.edu with any questions!

Best,

Sharece