Study in Canada Story from St. Lawrence College

Finding a good program at St. Lawrence College is often the easy part for students who decide to study outside their home country. With over 100 post-secondary diplomas and degrees and the highest graduate employment rate in Ontario, there are many choices that lead from education to employment and the possibility to work anywhere in Canada after graduation. The biggest challenge facing many students is to ask, “Will I fit in?”

To help ensure that students do fit in it has become a tradition on the Kingston campus for new international students to head to beautiful Sandbanks Park for a day at the beach before school begins.

For Andrea Ortiz Menchaca from Mexico, the day provided a great opportunity to make friends from many places. “We had a lot of fun building sand castles, playing football and enjoying the 5 kilometer beach and the huge lake. It seemed more like an ocean!” Andrea chose St. Lawrence for the post-graduate diploma in Communicative Disorders, something she could not find in Mexico.

The orientation day helped create a network of friends that she sees in the halls on a regular basis and eased her transition to her new school. “I now have friends from Colombia, Sweden, Japan and Germany,” says Andrea. “People in Kingston are friendly and polite. This is a great education city. There is lots to do and if you look, you can usually find students having fun as well as working hard”.