The Queen’s Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Office officially welcomed the 2020 Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program PhD Fellows (Cohort 4) to Kingston Canada. Although courses are continuing to be virtual, Cohort 4 Fellows were able to travel to Canada after a semester of remotely working from Ethiopia.
The Fellows participated in the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Arrival Orientation, which provided supports to facilitate their transition to Kingston, Ontario. Fellows were completing their 14-day quarantine at the time and were not able to get out to see the campus, but the staff tried their best to show the campus virtually.
During the Arrival Orientation, the full Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program team joined the Fellows to start the Orientation with an icebreaker and welcome them to Kingston. The Orientation included guest speakers from various Queen’s Departments as outlined below:
– Student Community Relations: Adam King
– Wellness Services: Amber McCart and Janice Yu
– Queen’s University International Centre (QUIC): Arthur Chen
– Library Services: Paola Durando
– Student Academic Success Services: Lydia Skulstad
– Human Rights and Equity Office (HREO)
– Sexual Violence Prevention & Response: Barbara Lotan
– Sexual & Gender Diversity: Jean Pfleiderer and Erin Clow
– Inclusion and Anti- Racism: Lavie Williams
– Accessibility: Andrew Ashby (unable to make it but shared a PowerPoint to review)
All of the presenters allowed the Fellows to learn more about the Queen’s and Kingston community. The Fellows asked many great questions during the presentations and took away a lot of important information. After reviewing the Fellow’s responses in the orientation evaluation, the orientation has enabled the Fellow’s to have a smooth transition to Queen’s University.
Although it was a very different experience to arrive in Kingston during the Covid-19 Pandemic, the staff at Queens University Canada welcomed the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Cohort 4 Fellows and were very excited to have them join.
