On September 7-9, the new international students of St. Margaret’s School participated in a Culture Shock Workshop. This is a 5-6 hour program created as a means for new international students to understand, anticipate, and tackle culture shock, an inevitable stage of living abroad. The Culture Shock Workshop consists of cultural simulations, lecture, individual and group work, testimonials from “seasoned” students, and role play. The goal of this report is to provide an overview of the workshop and give information about the cultural adjustment of the new international students to their teachers, dorm parents, coaches, advisors, and administrators.

The participants this year were: Brianna Oh, Ye-Eun Hong, Mariana Corral, Cecilia Pilgram, Regina Talavera, Regina Rojas, Ana Bonilla, Tianbai Xu, Samantha Yung, Misa Kamichi, Joan Ge, and Ginny Tsai. Joan and Ginny were latecomers last year, so this was the first culture shock workshop for them. Also on the trip were Min Jin Kim, Hyun Hwa Jung, Seh-Young Kim, Ji Ye Kim, So Youn Kim. Hyun Hwa participated in the testimony part of the workshop, using her presentation from last year’s VATESOL conference. Faculty members were Leslie Bohon, Gayle Hicks, and Yousun Song.