Geelong venue helping international students settle in Down Under

International students meeting Australian animals at the Welcome to Geelong event at Geelong Salvos.

BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE

International students in Geelong, Victoria, now have an environment where they can feel a sense of trust, safety and belonging, a program manager for The Salvation Army says.

Australia has seen record numbers of international students in 2024, with a 23 per cent increase across the nation in the number of students from overseas compared to 2023.

Victoria alone has recorded an increase of more than 37,000 students from last year’s numbers.

Geelong International Student Lounge Program Manager Helen Nicholls-Stary said a lack of sufficient income and increasing mental health struggles were core issues for international students living in Geelong. She said finding work in hospitality or retail was a struggle for the large cohort of older postgraduate students drawn to Geelong.

“It’s really difficult for them to pick up a job in McDonald’s or anything like that because they’re too old,” she said. “McDonald’s, Red Rooster, KFC – all of those, once you hit about 21, you’re out.”

Lunar New Year celebrations at the Geelong International Student Lounge at Geelong Salvos.

She said many also thought they would be able to secure part-time work in their chosen field to support themselves while studying, but that was also not typically achievable. “It just doesn’t work that way in Australia,” Helen said.

She said because of these challenges and a lack of cultural awareness, students were vulnerable to exploitation. Helen said the International Student Lounge, located at the Geelong Corps, was running workshops on understanding worker rights, workplace cultural practices and how to secure a job.

“For a lot of international students, they can write a resume, but they’ve done it in their own language, in their own country,” she said. “We [want to] offer that immediate feedback. It’s a bit like resume writing 101.”

The Lounge, which opened in May 2023, has since provided hot meals at over 80 events, reached more than 500 international students and had a total attendance of close to 3000, which almost equals the number of international students at Deakin University, the largest education provider in Geelong.

Geelong international students enjoy a dinner together to celebrate Christmas 2023.

Helen said the Lounge was also offering health and wellbeing workshops to address mental health concerns, as many students were experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety. She said the Lounge staff were hoping to work alongside students to create digital resources to educate international students about mental health awareness and strategies. Helen said that, with online study continuing after COVID-19, students still felt a sense of isolation and a lack of connection.

“We’re creating an environment where [there is] a sense of trust, a sense of safety and belonging,” she said. “That’s one of the things that we picked up right from the beginning. International students came to the lounge, and they’d say, ‘The problems that I thought only [I] was feeling, I’m now discovering everyone feels the same way’.”

“There’s that sense of normality with some of those concerns and being able to talk about it and have that common feeling of being able to solve it together, or ‘I’m not the only one’.”

(Left) Meals ready to be served at the Geelong Salvos’ International Student Lounge. (Right) The Lounge’s dedicated cook, Faiza Asif.

The Lounge, which opened a year ago in May 2023, has since then provided hot meals at over 80 events, reached more than 500 international students and had a total attendance of close to 3000, which almost equals the number of international students at Deakin University, the largest education provider in Geelong.

Another initiative beginning this year is a 10-week learn to swim and beach safety program. The program is set to run as a multicultural swim safety and surfing initiative, which Helen said was timely.

“Over the Christmas period, we’ve had the highest rate of swimming deaths within the multicultural community,” she said.

In addition to these programs, the Lounge is also set to host an International Friends cultural exchange program this year and a Discover Victoria excursion program so that students can travel for free to see significant tourist attractions across the state. These programs are available to Geelong International students as a result of the Study Melbourne Inclusion Program Grant for 2024.

The Lounge is open every Monday and Thursday evening from 5-8pm and is open to all international students studying higher education.

Students have gathered at the Geelong International Student Lounge at Geelong Salvos for over 80 events since the program was launched in May last year.