Baylor going international with Send-Off Parties in China

Remember the summer right after high school graduation? Feeling relieved after 12 years of classes, spending as much time with your high school friends during your last three months at home, dreaming about how you’d decorate your dorm… And worrying about how in the world you’d survive college.

Enter Baylor Send-Off Parties. Every summer, the Baylor Parents Network hosts these parties all across the country to connect incoming students, answer questions about the Baylor experience for both students and parents, and get students fired up about being a Bear shortly before they leave home.

“It’s a way to officially welcome our students into the Baylor family and allow new students to connect to other students,” says Gail Offringa, director of the Baylor Parents Network. “The current Baylor students who attend offer great advice and insight into what their freshman year will entail, and their parents connect with other parents, some of whom decide to stay connected throughout their students’ careers at Baylor.”

This month, the Parents Network is hosting one of the first-ever international Send-off Parties in Beijing and Shanghai, China. Events like these are especially important for the majority of international students, who, on top of not knowing anyone at Baylor, aren’t familiar with the culture and customs of American university life.

“I was afraid when I came to America that people would be unkind to international students, but when I came to Baylor, Waco people were really nice to us,” says Celine Chen, a senior marketing and film and digital media major from Yingkou, China. Chen is one of three current students who will meet incoming BU students in China and help them navigate things like addressing roommate issues, talking with a professor, and learning the rules of football and basketball. “I still remember my first day on campus. I was carrying a Baylor map and couldn’t find a building. A student came up to me and said, ‘Do you need help?’, and it was very nice.”

If you’re an incoming Baylor student (or the parent of one), I hope you’ll make it out to a Send-Off Party in your area.

Sic ’em, Bears and parents!