Internationalizing the Student Experience: Natalie Kenny-Hall Creates a Safe Space for International Students on UGA’s Campus
Natalie Kenny-Hall has one main goal with her work: internationalizing the student experience at UGA.
“It’s not just about working with international students and helping them here on campus, but it’s also allowing students from the US to experience international culture as well,” she said.
The Senior Programming Coordinator for International Student Life at UGA seeks to create a stronger community among students through her work. She is involved in planning and programming events like International Coffee Hour.
At this event, students can be found talking about different cultures and sharing their experiences at UGA.
“Lots of research shows that when students feel like they belong, they do better academically.”
It’s not something she just tells international students; it’s something she has experienced herself.
Natalie grew up in England and pursued her undergraduate degree there. She thought that moving to another “similar” country would be simple.
“Moving to an English speaking country, I thought the transition would be very, very easy,” she said.
Her empathy to understand the mixed emotions that these students might feel as they start college across the world allows her to connect with a variety of students.
“Natalie has helped me find my community at UGA by teaching us all that we need to be able to gain intercultural competency. Her trainings allowed us to understand how to communicate with people from different backgrounds and cultures,” said Sowmya Gangyshetty, a third-year law student from India.
In the 53 years that this event has taken place, Natalie has seen the firsthand impact that these interactions can have on a student’s sense of belonging and finding friendship.
“I see (students) sitting down and talking to each other the first week, maybe the second week, and then by the end of term, they’re best friends and they’ve got a group of people,” she said. “That’s just wonderful to see that kind of organic friendship happen due to them coming to one of our events.”
Natalie is also an advisor for five international student organizations at UGA- Bangladeshi Student Organization, Korean Undergraduate Student Organization, Indian Student Association, Nepalese Student Organization, Vietnamese Student Organization.
“It’s a fairly new job for me directly advising student organizations, but they’re all wonderful. I’d like to keep growing those skills to make sure that I can support them as best as possible,” she said.
When talking about how students can make the best of their experience through ISL’s events and organizations, she suggests that they be open to new opportunities, even if it’s scary at first.
The biggest lesson that she hopes all students take from ISL events is that, “there’s more that we have in common than we don’t have in common from around the world,” she said.
Skills I Used:
This story continued on with my idea of continuing to report on International Student Life, but this time I was featuring an individual. I loved being able to do create story because it shows the depth I have with producing different types of journalistic pieces. Most importantly, I think this piece truly showcased how I continued to grow throughout the semester as a journalist by incorporating audio elements combined with a written story.
