Get up, stand up

WIS, an organization set up to promote international student interests, has been up and running now for a couple years, but for any group or organization that involves the often ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ international student community, continuity is a problem, as WIS is discovering.
International students are coming to TU Delft in ever-greater numbers, but they’re mainly MSc students who are gone again after just two years. WIS is therefore constantly in need of new members to replace the departed and keep moving the TU’s exciting internationalization project forward.
“No matter how long an international student is here in Delft, through WIS they can all help make an immediate and lasting impact on the international student community,” says Rose Manouchehri, a WIS member and organizer. “WIS puts no restrictions on involvement and we welcome all international students to come along and meet us and see what we are all about.”
What WIS is all about is organizing social and extracurricular activities for international students and helping to identify and solve some of the long and short term problems and challenges facing international students. As the members proclaim, WIS is ‘the start of an international students for international students movement’ that has opened a new door for international students to form their own vibrant community’. 

To keep that door from closing, WIS is now looking for new members to get involved and help with the organizing and problem-solving, while having fun and meeting new people along the way. WIS meets once per week for approximately one hour, at which time the members discuss the various issues and opportunities on the agenda. Within TU Delft, several organizations support WIS, including Dutch student council political party ORAS and the VSSD student union. WIS’s international student members however formulate WIS’s goals and the group is always open to new ideas to develop and pursue.
WIS is currently focused on the following: Organizing social, sport and cultural activities, including sport days, activities involving cultural and sport student associations, and social events, like BBQs, parties and excursions. WIS is also collaborating with the TU’s International Office in organizing a new and improved international student introduction week that will hopefully make it easier for international and Dutch students to meet each other.
Currently ORAS is working on creating an international student union or center on campus, where international students can socialize and hang out, and WIS is also actively collaborating in this plan. Other WIS activities include helping to solve the housing problems that often trouble international students; helping to improve the information provided to students abroad, which is not always accurate; and further expanding the university-wide discussion on internationalization by bringing new opinions and ideas to TU Delft table.
“We as international students want to get to know the Dutch culture, meet friends and colleagues from all over the world, and participate in fun extracurricular activities,” Manouchehri says. “That’s why WIS was set up, so that international students can meet each other and actively participate in organizing fun and useful activities for international students, as well as finally helping to solve some of the common problems we all face as international students.”

WIS wants you! If you would like to get involved in the internationalization process, joining WIS could be your first step. If you’re interested in joining WIS or would like to attend a meeting, please send an introductory email to: wis@vssd.nl. Or email Rose Manouchehri at R.Manouchehri@tudelft.nl.