Cool Cat: Roslyn Moes
Q&A and photos by Charlie Barr
Roslyn Moes is the International Student Advisor here at CWU. She has worked in this position for 19 years, helping international students get accustomed to our country and school, helping them learn our customs, laws, and university practices. She is passionate about crossing cultures and wants to see international students thrive on campus and make connections with students from the States.
Q: What is your name, position, and year working at Central?
A: My name is Roslyn Moes, I go by Roz, and my position is the International Student Advisor. This is my 19th year now [at CWU].
Q: What does being the International Student Advisor entail?
A: It's an interesting position because it has the word advisor, but it means several different things. First, it's like immigration advising. Because our students come on an F1 visa, there's a lot of laws and things that they have to know and follow. Part of my job is just to educate the students on what those laws are. I also teach university 101, specifically for international students. In that, I'm teaching them some of those laws. Part of the advising piece comes in is [that] they'll come in and say, “I remember you saying in the class about this, but can you give me a little refresher,” so that I could say yes, here's what it is and that kind of thing.
And then the [last] part is academic advising. CWU has kind of changed its policies on whether students are directly admitted to their major or not. When I first started here, they were not [directly admitted]. And so, I served as their academic advisor [for them] to take all their gen eds and [get] their prerequisites done for whatever major they wanted. Once they declared their major, then they were passed on to their academic advisor for that major. Right now, they decided to do direct admit. So [now] when a student says, “I'm interested in business,” they're getting advising direct from the college of business. And so I'm not doing as much of the academic advising as I used to, just because of the way that the university has shifted. The thing is now, starting next year, they're going back to not [doing] direct admit. I'm hoping to do more academic advising again, to help the students prepare and get it to their major, but that's to be determined.
I’m also sort of the mama for the students. It's kind of the best way to describe it because they come from overseas. They don't have their family and parents here. A lot of times I'm just sort of their sounding board or just someone to talk to, a safe person to ask questions. So, I get questions anywhere from “where can I get my haircut” to, “I'm having girly troubles.” You just never know what students are going to ask.
Q: What drew you to advising international students?
A: I've actually been an international advisor for 27 years. It started when I was a kid because we had a lot of foreign exchange students in our home. I got a little bit of international exposure then. And then it seemed like I just was drawn to foreign people. They were different, they were interesting. I just liked being around them. But I didn't think of it as a career until much later.
When I was in college, I was housed with an international student as my roommate, a very short Japanese girl named Ai. And one day she said, “Hey, would you like to come to International Club with me?” and I said, “No, no, I'm American.” “No, no, no, you can come, you can come.” So, I went one time and just fell in love with everyone. I made a ton of friends and just enjoyed the students so much. And then [I] ended up working for the director of our English language program. I served as her assistant for about 3 years. It was just kind of a buildup. It wasn't one point; it just was all these different things throughout my life and throughout my college career that drew me in this area.
Q: Are there specifics about your job that you love? What is fulfilling about it?
A: It's something new every day, whether I'm learning a new word in a different language or something about a religion or a country that I don't know a lot about, either its location or something cool about it. I like to learn, I like to meet people, I like to learn about different cultures and languages and things.
Originally, my career path was going to be marriage and family therapy, [which] didn't work out. But the one thing I do like about my job is that I'm still able to help people, but they're not in a tragedy. They're just students who are trying to navigate the US, they're just trying to get navigate CWU. And so, they’re people who need help, but it's not traumatic. I'm glad that I got put down that direction, because I think as a marriage of family therapist, I'd be a little bit sad, and it would be very hard to hear some of the things that people go through. But this, it’s still frustrating at times, but it's not as… [depressing]. The advice I give is basic life advice. I’m not going to ruin their life.
Q: If you feel comfortable sharing, is there a part of your work that is stressful? Do you have examples?
A: I would say right now there's been a lot of changes with immigration and that sort of thing, but we're navigating it well. I think that's been super crucial with my job is you can't get stuck in that rut. If you try to keep things exactly the way they were, you're not going to be successful. We're constantly updating, changing things, informing the students of those changes, trying to stay on top of that. That can be stressful.
When a new quarter starts, let's say fall quarter, we have anywhere from 40-60 students arriving. I'm in charge of arrivals. It's my job to make sure that everybody gets from wherever they are to their dorm room, for example. I'm coordinating all these rides and when these people are arriving and where they're supposed to go and who's going to meet them. A day like that can be really, really stressful. But I'm good at logistics, so it's kind of fun too.
And then we do orientation. We have a couple days where we're just teaching the students all this stuff, they're tired and we're excited but tired, getting them registered for classes. And then all of a sudden, the students get busy and then we're like, what do we do now? We do it 3 times a quarter, 3 times a year. It starts this constant roller coaster of like, crazy busy? Okay, downtime. Crazy busy. And that sort of thing. Otherwise, I try to stay chill.
We have a phrase of don't let the students' emergency become your emergency. That's sort of a good motto because, not to downplay the student's feelings or anything, but sometimes they think they need something urgently and then it's a huge matter, but I can look at this and go, “I've dealt with this 1000 times. You're going to be okay. Just relax.” I'm sort of that person to say, “I'll help you with this. Don't stress out, we'll work this through this together.”
Q: What do you want American and Domestic students to know about International Students?
A: That they're so fun! Don't be afraid to talk to them, they're probably more afraid to talk to American students than vice versa. Sometimes it comes down to the matter of basic common humanity. We all eat. Maybe this country eats something different than we do, but we all eat. So just talk about food! We all wear clothes, and again, maybe different, but that's enough commonality that you can start or have a conversation. Music is universal. You can talk about your family, right? Everybody's got a family. Everybody has somebody that they can talk about. I want to encourage domestics or American students to start with one of those topics. Start with “Hi, how are you? Where are you from? What are you studying here?” Everybody's here to study, so that's a common question you can ask just to get the conversation flowing. And it might take a little bit of patience. Not all of our students have perfect English, but most of them are very excited to meet American students and would just love to make an American student friend. That's why they're here, right? They're here to learn about American culture and to study and [to get] to know American students.
Q: Would you say the same for the opposite situation, for International Students?
A: Kind of the same thing. Don't be afraid to just take the [chance] or make the most out of their opportunity of being here and that Americans aren't as scary as we seem. [For] a lot of them, it's a language issue. They're afraid to make a mistake in their language. So, I think that if they can kind of get over that fear, just [to] get a little bit of confidence. They rarely initiate conversations, but if they do, I just say, go for it! Practicing and speaking is how you're going to get better and don't be embarrassed about whether you use the wrong form of a verb. They'll know what you're talking about, and that's totally fine, they're going to get to know you and love you. It's just a good opportunity for friendship.
Q: Any last thoughts you want to share?
A: We really enjoy having the [international] students at CWU. I've met many American students who maybe have never even left Washington. To have someone sitting next to you who's from a different country, that's such a cool opportunity! Take advantage of the fact that the world has come to our campus, and you don't have to go [out there]. If you do, that's great. We have study abroad opportunities. We'd love to send you somewhere. But there are people in your classroom from different places. Get to know them, get to know where they're from or where they're at in their perspective because it's so enriching. I've never met anyone who's like, “I don't like international students.” Everybody who meets them was like, “Oh my gosh… they're so cool and so fun!” So, yeah, just take advantage and utilize each other for knowledge and friendship and world knowledge, making the world a better place by just having relationships.
Interview has been edited for clarity and length.