Il programma di tutorato internazionale Buddy System partirà anche al Politecnico di Milano dal prossimo anno accademico. 500 international freshmen of leonardo and Bovisa's LM courses will be put in contact, even before their arrival,with an Italian student already enrolled at Polimi who will give them information about the courses of study and the city of Milan and will voluntarily support him for a post-orientation during the first 100 days of his first academic year. We are very proud of this opportunity that we have built with the International University Office. Very soon the call will open, do not miss the opportunity to participate!
Specifically, the Buddy System project is a post-orientationprogram, which is started when the incoming student enrolls at the Polytechnic. Following the model of some European and Italian universities, the incoming student will be combined with a "Buddy": an Italian student who will give useful information about the city and the University, on the structures, on the study; it will help him to solve the problems (not purely procedural, of competence instead of the studesk) that the transfer entails and to make new acquaintances directly in the host student community. The goal achieved is a better integration of incoming students with the resident student community, and many benefits also for buddystudents: practicing in a foreign language anddirect approach with an international atmosphere, while remaining in their own city. An excellent opportunity for students interested in carrying out a mobility project in the future or those returning from an already breakthrough and suffering from the"erasmus sickness"syndrome.
The exchange student who intends to join this service will receive an email before his arrival with the name of the Politecnico student who will support him in the first weeks of stay. In foreign universities initiatives of this type have existed for many years and the students who take part in them are called in different ways depending on the country: "Buddy", "Peer Advisor", "Friend Tutor", "Mentor".
How did we contribute? An activity like this would be for us associations and representatives natural, being able to count on our skills and on our network of representatives / contacts in all the faculties, but it is necessary that the coordination of the project is carried out by the University to manage the contacts of incoming students and the combination with polytechnic students.
Thus, in addition to the definition of the guidelines of the project, during the Permanent Student Commission of last February 26, 2015 it was advanced and approved that the coordination of this service is among the tasks assigned to some young people selected with the call for collaborations in tutoring activities (150 hours) supported by us student representatives and students of associations that already deal with international integration, as ESN. This working group will constitute the Buddy family of Coordination,which will coordinate the students of the project in groups for the different Schools of the University. The Buddy will be in direct contact with the incoming student, and is supervised directly by the coordinating Buddies.
Another fundamental aspect is the involvement once again of the associations and representatives for the definition of a calendar of cultural and social initiatives aimed at the group of buddys and international students, to strengthen the bond during the 3 months of duration of the project: games, cultural events, international evenings and sports activities.
The recruitment of buddy students will take place through a call open to all Italian students of the Politecnico,who can voluntarily apply for this role. The call will be launched very soon, so do not miss the opportunity to apply!
