University of Michigan International Center

Written by ICSC member Divyani Paul: Ph.D. candidate, Dept. of Biological Chemistry India is home to 1.3 billion people speaking 780 different languages with various religious beliefs. It’s rich history dates back to 2500-1500 BC and in due course of time civilizations have engendered an extraordinary blend of stories and events which are celebrated as festivals in India even up to this day. (image: Rath Yatra Celebrations) The beginning of the Hindu new year is celebrated by Makar Sankranti at the beginning of spring by praying to God for a forthcoming bountiful harvest. Similarly, the Sikhs celebrate Lohri and Baishakhi in Northern India and Pongal in southern India thank nature for generous harvest. People draw floral patterns in the house and make sweets as well as light a bonfire to celebrate these festivals. (image: Diety of Beautiful Goddess Durga) As we move further into spring, the festival of color-Holi is celebrated widely across the country and in recent times it has gained...

Christstollen is a very popular sweet in Germany during the Holiday season. It is a type of sweet bread with lots of dried fruits and spices that pairs perfectly with a glass of mulled (spiced) wine, cider or tea! Below you can find an authentic German recipe for Christstollen. Some of the ingredients might be a little hard to find but if you put in the extra effort, you will be rewarded with a delicious German Christmas bread! Recipe for German Christstollen: 200 g raisins 75 ml milk 500 g flour 14 g dry yeast 150 g sugar 175 g soft butter 125 g quark (low fat soft cheese, can be found at Trader Joes or Whole Foods) 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 egg ½ tsp salt ½ tsp each of cardamom, cinnamon and gloves 100 g candied orange peel 100 g candied lemon peel 200 g ground almonds To make the yeasted dough, heat up the milk first. Mix flour with yeast and 1 tsp of sugar, then add the warm milk. Use a fork to mix all the ingredients together and let the dough sit...

Arman Golrokhian, Iran Class of 2017, Dual Masters Degrees in Public Policy and Natural Resources Senior Strategist at DTE Energy's Renewable Energy Solutions team "I would highly encourage international students to connect with UM alums, especially with those whom they have most in common, and learn about their career path. What it took for them to secure their jobs, what skills are most valued in their field of study these days, and many more similar questions." Born and raised in Shiraz, Iran, Arman Golrokhian Arman studied mechanical engineering at Sharif University in Iran before he came to the U.S in 2013 to pursue his graduate studies at the University of Michigan. After one year of course here, he was selected as an Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Climate Corps Fellow, a very competitive national fellowship in the field of energy and sustainability. At EDF, Arman worked with the City of New York and developed a strategic framework to model and manage energy use i...

Mengyang Liu, China Class of 2018, M.S. Sports Management Manager, Chinese Social Media & Partnership at Brooklyn Nets ”International student identity can be a strength rather than a weakness. You have the unique resources and experience from your home country.”  Mengyang completed his undergraduate in China with a bachelor's degree in International Business. To pursue his sports dream, he applied to the University of Michigan for further study. He started his on-campus job as a RecSports staff and tried to find a summer intern after one-year’s study. After interviewing with a NBA team for several rounds, he was told he did not get the job. At that moment, he decided to go back to China and then found a shadowing opportunity to work as a frontline sports reporter in Beijing. That experience opened the door of the NBA for him. Later, he got the opportunity to cover the  Detroit Piston as a Chinese reporter for Tencent during his second year at Michigan. Thanks to the connec...

Although it is a small city, Ann Arbor has a lot of things you can do at your leisure. I am going to focus primarily on the outdoor activities one can do at Ann Arbor. The first thing one should do in Ann Arbor is to explore our own campus. The University of Michigan has a beautiful campus spread out along Ann Arbor with its many buildings, yards, and statues, which is a world on its own and deserves to be explored. The most iconic landmarks are the Michigan stadium and the law quadrangle. The law quadrangle is a part of Michigan law school and also houses its iconic library. It is located in the heart of the central campus. Its Gothic architecture rivals Ivy League schools and gives you a sense of going back in time. So, it's a place not to miss.  The Nichols Arboretum is another extremely popular Ann Arbor attraction that you can explore. It is located right by the Medical Center and the Huron River runs right through it. It has gardens and hiking trails and is an extremely peace...

Hitting the rewind button, let us turn back to November 2019. In my first semester at umich, I received the offer of my second Olympic volunteer journey in Lausanne, Switzerland. Instead of being excited, I was facing a real financial problem. The volunteer opportunity is appealing, but I needed to pay for flights and accommodations on my own for more than two weeks. To Go or Not To Go My last Olympic journey in South Korea was a shining memory; however, it was fading away. The opportunity to explore a new city and meet interesting people in the sports industry definitely became extremely attractive to me at that time. While I must calm down to calculate how much I am going to spend on it. As you may already know, Switzerland rates as the most expensive country in the world to visit; not to mention that I need to stay for more than two weeks.  “To go or not to go”, I was stuck in a quagmire at that moment. Start to Reach Out Adopting a positive attitude, I decided to ask my profess...

I had switched research groups in March and was still on the probation period in the new group when we received the news that the labs will be shut down for an unknown time period. I was not much concerned about progress towards my degree, as I am not close to graduation. But those who were about to graduate or were finishing work for theses were certainly affected.  Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic had a huge destructive effect on all aspects of life. As an international student in these circumstances, I got worried about my family back home, health safety around, research for my PhD degree and the economy of both the USA and my home country. Summer of 2020 caught me with these things in mind. Research supervisors can be different, but I consider myself extremely lucky with the one that I have. Not only he is great in communicating with students, but also he is not constrained to experimental physics only. All experimental research work experienced a huge hit by the quarantine mea...

  Finding a sound balance between our professional and personal life is by far one of the most challenging things to accomplish. Where you are a college student, graduate student, or working in the corporate or academic realm, it is imperative to find that “sweet spot” of an ideal balance between home and work to ensure success in both domains.  For some of us, balancing work and personal life may not be terribly challenging, depending on our responsibilities in either area. For someone like myself who joined graduate school after getting married, designing my graduate school life and personal life in a way that does not overwhelm me requires more conscious efforts.  One of the first things I did when I decided to join graduate school is have a detailed discussion about my goals and aspirations with my partner. Ensuring that my partner and I are on the same page regarding certain added responsibilities and redesigning our lives made the onward path a lot smoother and hass...

Lie down on the floor and play "Snow Angel" in this hot summer. This is exactly what I must do every time before the 2020 summer Peer to Peer sessions. You may feel confused about why did that, or was that something we as student peer advisors must have to do before the meeting, something like a magical passcode?  50% correct! That was my passcode to be ready to see all of you! When I am faced with difficulties/ uncertainties/ challenges, I will be stressed and lose my mind. So that's the reason why I did the 'Snow Angel' before the live presentation. I admit that I may look odd, but it's a good way for helping me let the stress out. It sounds fun, doesn't it? However, when I recall my self-soothing progress, it took me a long time to find some fun and healthy way.  At the very beginning, I relied on comfort food a lot. We know that these types of food such as cookies/cakes/ice cream contain high calories. Certainly, eating comfort food could make me happy...

Throughout your time here at Michigan, you will slowly start finding apps that are helpful and make your life much easier. Well, what if you know about all these apps before you even come on campus? In this blog, I will be talking about some useful applications that can be downloaded onto your phone that will most definitely help out your time at Michigan. The first app is the official University of Michigan app , and being a Wolverine, this is a must have app! This app keeps you updated on announcements, events happening at Michigan and Michigan news. It also shows all the dining halls and recreational sport centers offered on campus (This is particularly helpful if you are new on campus since you won’t know where everything is in the beginning as well as their names). You will also be able to search for bus stops, building names and the names and information of people in the Michigan community. I would also recommend getting the Duo Security app as Two-Factor Authentication is now m...