Ella from China, Studying Arts (Criminology)
One of the events college put on was mental health week; in this week we raise our awareness to mental health and also the importance of supporting other people… we sat in the meeting room and listened to our friends talk about their struggles of depression, anxiety and bipolar. It is really moving to see a lot of people supporting each other.
Ella's Experience:
Hi everyone, my name is Leyan Zhang, I’m from China. This is my first year in New College and I’m doing a Bachelor of Arts and my Major is Criminology.
When I was applying for accommodation, new college offered me an opportunity as an underage student. Here, underage students are provided with supervision and staff and older residents take care of and help me get over the culture shock and home-sickness, which is something I really appreciated. Also, the best thing about here is that I spent my 18th birthday with all my friends here.
If you are worried about how to make friends at university, I can assure you that at new college you can make a lot of friends, because people here are super friendly, and you can basically join people at dinner time at any table. And also, we have group suppers every Sunday night so you can get to know your group members a bit better and you can develop friendships with each other.
One thing that helped me to be part of the community is the bible study group, when I came here, I didn’t have any religion, until I met my friend and she did bible study with me until the end of the term, and here I developed my own sense of religion.
One of the events College put on was mental health week. In this week we raise our awareness to mental health and also the importance of supporting other people. In this week, we sat in the meeting room and listened to our friends talk about their struggles of depression, anxiety and bipolar. It is really moving to see a lot of people supporting each other and this also raised my awareness of the importance of mental health.
The thing I value most about New College is the sense of security and belonging here. Here I am surrounded by all my friends, and all the excellent staff and people. I feel really happy and secure every day. Another thing, New College provides catered food, which means you don’t have to cook for yourself when you have a lot of assignments due at the end of semester.