Study Abroad Guide
For Fontys ICT
One of our ICT students, Anton Bonev, provided a wonderful tour as part of the partner visit from Fontyswide partner California State University Bakersfield. Compliments on his professionalism (also in preparation) and service to our partner. Mrs. Sukamaki from California State was very pleased with the tour and the way Anton told the Fontys story. Especially his own experiences as an international student were much appreciated.
Read more about this beautifully accomplished task in Anton's own words.
The guided tour finished, and it went better than expected. Mrs. Sukamaki came to the R10 building and met me in front of the info desk. She was really pleased with the building as a first impression. From there we introduced ourselves and had a small chat about the buildings. I explained to her the different buildings and what they are used for, the buildings in the other sites of Eindhoven( I wanted to take her there, but it was raining, so I decided that it would be best to stay at our campus) And the campuses at Venlo and Tilburg. I explained to her about the new buildings that are currently in construction. We started the tour at R10 she pointed out what she liked:
Amazing design on the building (“Someone famous probably did the design for the building”).
The fact that she did not see a big classroom. Every room was for small classes. Which makes the environment safe for students to express themselves.
The fact that we have both classes and time in the OIL.
The rooms for studying on your own, private rooms, oh and she really liked the rooms that are in the middle of an open space.
How open everything is.
Really, really liked the orientation phase we have at first year. She mentioned it a few times during our tour.
The ISSD
The fact that the teachers really help you and stay with you and give you feedback.
And that was what we talked about mainly for the building R10 I made sure to explain to her about the building, the experiences we have as students, and how everyone is helping us to fit in better. I explained to her about my teachers in the study program how they help us and how they vary from the ones in my home country. Since you said that a big part of this tour is to have her recommend Fontys to her students and have more students in the exchange programmes.
I went ahead and tried to make everything more personal when I explained that I am an international student. And how everything is different from where I come from, but it is for the better and that everyone here is really welcoming. She told me that a big worry for them is that they are scared that they might need to know Dutch before coming. Since that was the case with German universities where they also send students. I made sure to give her a lot of examples how this is not the case in Eindhoven and how I had no issues and that she should tell her students that it is not a problem. And she seemed relieved when hearing that.
After that we went for a bit in R5 had a quick look around. And then headed to R3 and R4. We spent a lot of time there. We talked about the different profiles like here at ICT where we choose a profile. And then different majors in the buildings. She was amazed with how big our campus is and how we have a lot of majors. And every building was different. I explained that the reason is because the designs are different for very major so it can put students in real situations and truly prepare them for the future. We talked a lot about the difference between universities and we commented on all the positive things at Fontys that we saw in every building.
Than we came to R10 again and chatted about how housing is the biggest problem in the Netherlands. She asked how I got my “dorm” and I explained that I applied for help with Fontys, so she was left with good impression that Fontys helps with that. And then I escorted her to the central train station and made sure that she got on the train and checked up with her later. She is on the train and is going to Rotterdam.
I think that I did good, and left her with good impressions only, she repeated a few times that from now on she will talk a lot about our university to her students and that there should be more students. I explained to her that representative from Fontys came a lot to Bulgaria and that’s how I learned about Fontys, and she said that this is amazing and hopefully there are events like that in California because its good.
Thank you again for this opportunity it was a big pleasure for me!
Anton Bonev, Fontys ICT student
