UC teams with community partners to help international students create home away from home
Needed household items and furniture provided at 'Thrifty Move-in Day'
Creating a home away from home is not always easy for incoming UC students, particularly those traveling here from countries around the world.
This academic year UC welcomed more than 1,200 new international students.
UC International students participate in Thrifty Move-in Day.
“Our international students arrive here with so little, just a suitcase or two, and it’s hard for them to get to places to buy what they need,” says Kelly Plazibat, UC International program manager for student services and support. “They don't have U.S. drivers licenses, often experience difficulty navigating Cincinnati's public transportation, and don't have basic items for their apartments or residence halls."
Recognizing the difficult situation many international students are in when they arrive, representatives from UC International, College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services (CECH), and the Graduate College came together with the help of several community partners to create and host Thrifty-Move In Day on Aug. 24, which helped more than 500 students acquire everything from basic necessities such as kitchen utensils and bedding, to desks, lamps, and furniture.
Rallying to help
The impetus behind Thrifty Move In Day started in the Fall of 2023 when a tragic fire ravaged the apartment of several international CECH students.
“They lost everything,” says Stacy Jenkins, CECH student success program manager. “They had no clothes or shoes, nothing to cook food with… not even a bed. They were sleeping on the floor.”
Jenkins teamed up with Tiffany Berman who at the time was president of the CECH Graduate Student Association to hatch a plan of action. Berman is now a doctoral student at UC working towards her degree in educational studies.
“It was really difficult to get the students impacted by the fire to ask for help,” says Berman. “They didn’t want to seem ungrateful for the opportunity to be here at UC and they didn’t want their families back home to know they were struggling.”
It was really difficult to get the students impacted by the fire to ask for help,” says Berman. “They didn’t want to seem ungrateful for the opportunity to be here at UC and they didn’t want their families back home to know they were struggling.
Tiffany Berman, former president of CECH Graduate Student Association
Jenkins and Berman, along with others from CECH, rallied to help the students but quickly realized there was a broader issue among UC’s international student population. They created and deployed a survey to better gauge the needs of international students and the results confirmed their initial thoughts.
“We heard from UC students that said they slept on the floor because they had no way of buying and transporting a mattress,” says Berman. “Others told us they ate rice and bread because they didn’t have a blender to cook meals according to their cultural customs.”
In fact, 65-percent of the survey respondents said they didn’t have basic items because of finances and transportation challenges.
Thrifty Move-in Team members (L-R) Tiffany Berman, Stacy Jenkins and Brandilyn Pham.
Jenkins and Berman knew they needed to do more. They reached out to Kelly Plazibat with UC International, and the three women pulled a team together with Gibin Raju, former Graduate Student Government president, and Brandilyn Pham, program manager of community and belonging for the Graduate College. The team applied to participate in GradNext - a Shark Tank-like competition hosted by the Graduate College that invites faculty, staff, and students to pitch innovative ideas that can reimagine graduate education at UC. The team, named “Global Voices, Local Impact” pitched an idea to take a current partnership event with IKEA to the next level and help graduate students get basic supplies to create their homes here at UC. The team won the People’s Choice Award and $2,000 in seed money.
Sowing the seeds of sustainability and student success
Each year thousands of UC students move out of residence halls and off-campus housing leaving behind furniture and other items that still have a lot of life left. UC’s Office of Sustainability works with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful to collect discarded items that can be repurposed or donated for future use.
Brandilyn Pham reached out to Keep Cincinnati Beautiful to see if the Global Voices, Local Impact team could partner to collect furniture and other items for incoming international students. Pham and Jenkins soon amassed nearly 2,000 items.
“We collected utensils, plates, slow cookers, microwaves, dining chairs, tables, desks, laundry baskets…anything that a student would need, and I could store,” says Jenkins.
And storage was a bit tricky. Jenkins turned a large closet, conference room and a few other spaces in CECH, including her office, into storage space. And while Jenkins and Pham were busy collecting items that could be repurposed, Kelly Plazibat with UC International was busy reimagining a partnership with IKEA.
“Last year we had two buses take international students up to IKEA in West Chester to go shopping for their apartments and we thought it would be great to expand this event and package it with the opportunity for students to select from the gently used items that Stacy and Brandilyn collected.”
And so Thrifty Move-In Day was born.
Event partner IKEA provided buses to transport students to its West Chester store.
With the help of about 30 volunteers, all those items Jenkins had squirreled away were brought out and set up in the CECH courtyard. Graduate and undergraduate international students were given tickets representing money to shop for gently used items.
IKEA provided free shuttle service throughout the day, transporting more than 350 students from the Uptown campus to its West Chester store and back. Additionally, IKEA set up a tent in the CECH courtyard for students to participate in games and win extra items. When arriving at the store, students were welcomed with snacks, special discounts, and more.
“We are honored to have partnered with UC on this special event, which aligns with our broader mission to empower individuals in creating a better everyday life. We recognize that many students are living away from home for the first time and need to create a comfortable and functional living space,” says Lauren Goldberg, marketing specialist for IKEA West Chester. “ We’re thrilled to have helped students feel more at home as they begin their academic journey.”
The Global Voices, Local Impact team says the event was so successful they ran out of gently used items in about two hours.
“It was amazing to see how thankful and happy the students were,” says Berman. “It was a wonderful feeling to realize that we saw a need and were able to do something to meet that need.”
It was amazing to see how thankful and happy the students were,” says Berman. “It was a wonderful feeling to realize that we saw a need and were able to do something to meet that need.
Tiffany Berman, former president of CECH Graduate Student Association
Not only did the event help students acquire basic items, Plazibat says it also helped them make personal connections.
“Students were able to meet others who are in the same situation they are, which is comforting, and it also helped them get acclimated to campus and Cincinnati,” added Plazibat.
The team is meeting in October to debrief on the event and discuss how they can expand and grow its reach in the years to come.
All images: provided
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