May 6, 2020

Things I am grateful for in my COVID-19 time work life:

• The NSCC International team – a dedicated and caring team of professionals who are always up to the challenge, and never give up.

• International student ambassadors – a resilient team of students who demonstrated their leadership skills with flair and fun in this crisis, and kept us close to international student challenges and concerns. 

• The iCent app and many other valuable technology tools that help keep us connected.

• NSCC students and employees  – in particular those working with us to support international students, outbound international learning programs that had to be cancelled and re-designed for 2021, and international technical assistance project teams who had to postpone and rethink planned project activities.   I also want to thank our immigration consultant, Inspired Immigration Consulting, for their outstanding service. Many of these colleagues have begun to work with us on the exciting challenge of re-imagining international education at NSCC post-COVID-19!

• Partners, colleagues, and friends (many times these are all of those things in one person) around the world – so many have shared words of empathy and encouragement as we faced several tragedies in Nova Scotia in April 2020.

• Canadian and provincial government department teams and political leadership for responding so quickly and progressively to international student challenges in addition to Canadian student, business and worker challenges.

• Mentors – like Senator Stan Kutcher who stepped up to lead a webinar for NSCC international students on “Courage and Covid-19”. 

• Prospective NSCC international students – for their patience and determination to follow through with their study plans and dreams.

• Kind colleagues who tell me when the camera is pointed at the wrong thing in MS Teams meetings. 🙂

• Every day reminders that international education is so important:  International collaboration will result in a vaccine and a treatment for this virus and we will continue our work, in many new and challenging ways, to benefit students here at NSCC and around the world. To quote the slogan from my favourite t-shirt, “Let’s Go!”.

Katie Orr

Director, NSCC International