Tag Archives: international

International Graduate Student Welcome Nights Flyer

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GSWNFlyering 003 300x200 International Graduate Student Welcome Nights FlyerTo increase the publicity of the Graduate Student Welcome Nights on the Berkeley campus, we started to pass out the newly designed flyers to the graduate students on campus. The publication team (also known as the infrastructure group) uses the iPhone layout for the backdrop.  A table view is used to display the three-part message series: Connect Life, Connect Future, and Connect People. The tab bar items on the bottom highlight the special components of each welcome night, which include message, free food, video, and music.

If you have not gotten a flyer from us, you can contact us for one. Or, look for our table at the I-House Resource Fair on 8/19. We will also have our table at the Sproul Plaza on the Southside of campus and at the North Gate during UC Berkeley’s Welcome Week.

BBQ and Sports Recap

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We had a wonderful BBQ and sports time last Sunday. We met many new Berkeley international graduate students (and some of their spouses). We had some very delicious BBQ…the chicken drums and thighs were grilled to perfection! To counter the grease attack, there was a wide assortment of salads. And after the sumptuous lunch, we had three different activities going on at the same time: soccer, volleyball, and a nice walk to the shoreline in Alameda. Many of the new friends commented that they had a great time. Check out our pictures to see what you think. Come join us next time!

Kickoff for Welcome Prep for International Berkeley Graduate Students

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After our home church services on Sunday (8/9), the International Graduate Student Ministry staff and students (a total of 30 some people) got together at the YWCA to prepare for all the upcoming welcome events for the incoming international graduate students. We broke up into smaller working units, which we call the infrastructure groups, to take care of an array of tasks including: planning out publicity activities, creating a new banner, retooling the website, discussing the messages for the welcome nights, and many more. The work is not done yet, so I will have more updates to come.

Meeting New Berkeley International Graduate Students

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It has been very exciting to meet the incoming Berkeley international graduate students. The International Graduate Student Ministry staff has been picking up new Berkeley graduate students from the airport and hosting them for dinner.

Two nights ago, Karen and I met two couples at the dinner at Chul and Sharon’s place. We had wonderful conversations talking about the differences between lives in China, Korea and America. These students were eager to learn more about the Bay Area by going to more places. We hope to take them around the Bay Area, especially San Francisco, before the semester picks up.

Yesterday, we picked up another couple at the San Francisco International Airport. Even though they were on the plane for over 12 hours, they were excited to meet new friends and be in a brand new environment. Karen and I both felt very privileged to be one of their new friends in America.

I really look forward to meeting more new international graduate students through dinner, airport pickups, and the upcoming events: BBQ and soccer, Free English Class, and Graduate Student Welcome Nights.

Graduate Student Welcome Nights 2009

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August 28, 2009
5:30 pmto9:00 pm

For three consecutive Friday nights (8/28, 9/4, 9/11), IGSM will host a special series of welcome events for the incoming graduate students.

GSWN 1 – Friday 8/28 @ 5:30pm – Barrows Hall, 8th floor (Lipman Room)
GSWN 2 – Friday 9/4 @ 6:30pm – Barrows Hall, 8th floor (Lipman Room)
GSWN 3 – Friday 9/11 @ 6:30pm – 110 Barrows Hall

The main speaker, Dr. Chul Kim, a professor at CSUEB, will share his wisdom about how to perceive busyness, success and relationships in graduate school.

We will also have a special video, music, and a skit in these three welcome nights, making each one of them uniquely special.

Come and join us!

Below are some pictures of the Graduate Student Welcome Night last year.

Announcing: International Graduate Student Ministry (IGSM)

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After much discussion, we are changing our name from International Student Ministry (ISM) to International Graduate Student Ministry (IGSM).

For those of you who might be wondering why we decided to change our name, it is because there is already a nation-wide campus ministry group called “International Student Ministry.”  Although they do not have a group at Berkeley, their organization was founded earlier than ours, and they do have ISMs on a number of other campuses.  When our group was very small, it did not seem to to make much difference.  But now that our group is growing, and we envision extending our ministry to other campuses, we decided that this was a good time to change our name to respect the already-existing ISM and also to prevent possible confusion.

We came up with a long list of possible candidates, including names like “International Grad Ministry (IGM)”, “ParadIGM”, and “Via Fidelis”, but we believe that International Graduate Student Ministry best captures the nature and purpose of our group.  We hope you like the new name too!

We even have a new url (www.igsmonline.org), just in case you haven’t noticed. For those who had accounts on the old website, don’t worry, they got carried over. For those who would like to sign up and post comments, just register by clicking here or going to the register link at the bottom of the website.

Graduate Students Prayer Retreat

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3741310267 de8887ef24 m Graduate Students Prayer Retreat In preparation for the new school year, the graduate students in the International Student Ministry gather together at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary for a one-day prayer retreat last Saturday. In the morning, Chul gave us two messages from the story of Ruth and the story of Elijah and Elisha in the Bible to address the issue of overcoming inconvenience in order to experience the provision and power of God. Several members in our group gave stories about how they experienced God after they pushed through the inconveniences that they faced. Each story was unique; yet, every one of them testified to the common truth that God would mature our faith and trust in Him through our struggles against the inconveniences in our lives. I was blessed and challenged by Chul’s messages and these powerful testimonies.

In the afternoon, we reviewed our past efforts in meeting and serving new international graduate students. Several of the staff members gave PowerPoint presentation that summarized what we had done in the previous years. And then, we had broke up into small groups to discuss what we could do in the future to better serve the international graduate students’ community. We had a lot of ideas. And I cannot wait to implement them, so that we can better meet the needs of the incoming international graduate students in the fall semester of 2009.