Together with 36 groups of mentors, coordinator Jenna Emtö prepares for the arrival of the international students.
90 kilograms of candy; 100 kilograms of fruit. On Tuesday they stand together with 130 mentors, ready to bring approximately 1 400 new students from the flight doors to the doors of their new apartments.
It’s Arrival day on the schedule, and also the start that Jenna Emtö has been preparing for since the spring.
“It’s going to be chaotic”
As the mentor coordinator, she organizes the line between the mentors and the organizers from the university. Since the start of July, she has, together with the international desk, prepared the mentors and new students for the things that await.
“It’s been quite a lot of mailing, but it has not been like I didn’t sleep.”
How do you expect the Arrival day to go?
“It’s going to be chaotic. Even if we guide the students from the airport to the AF-castle, it’s gonna be like that. I heard that it sometimes creates new queues right inside the castle if people start to talk. In a moment, 30 guys are standing in a line that does not have a destination, so you have to lead them forward inside the admissions and so on.”
Even if it is the mentors that arrange the forthcoming activities, Jenna Emtö hopes to arrange some cooperation with the local student life.
“Often when you’re on an exchange you live very separately. I hope to connect more students to the social activities at the nations during the autumn.”
Had her own mentor
Jenna has herself been on an exchange in Berkeley, CA, but the experience was quite different from the one she got in Sweden.
“I had a mentor, but after we missed a first change to meet, I did not hear from him again. But, I lived with locals so I quickly felt at home.”
Mentor nr: 1
As a coordinator, Jenna Emtö has a supervising responsibility. But there is also going to be time for the nice parts of mentoring.
“No, I could not take it doing only the administrative stuff.”
Which number is your group then?
“It’s a little bit funny. My predecessor, I guess, put me in the first group as mentor number one.”
Is that not quite fitting?
“Yes, maybe so.”
