The International Experience

Introduced By

• Zack Nutchanat, Vice President Education, MTU Cork Students Union

Speakers

• Zouhair El Hairan, International Student, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
• Elise Hennebry, former International Student and current Fundraising Executive, External Affairs. MTU Cork
• Rohini Roy, former CIT graduate and International Student

Event Descriptor

Every year, people from all over the world travel to different countries in Europe to work and study. Ireland is the destination of choice for some, particularly international students, with its reputation for having a high-quality education system, being English speaking and being a friendly and welcoming destination.

But what’s it really like being an international student? Hear, first-hand from our panel of current and former international students about their experiences, the benefits they perceive of being an international student and the challenges they faced and had to overcome.

Biographies

Zouhair El Hairan is the Secretary of the Euro-Arab youth organization. He is also a member of the Journalists Institute of Catalonia and the Young Group of the UNESCO Association for Inter-religious Dialogue (AUDIR). He is the former President of the Moroccan Students Association in Catalonia, and participated in the “Access BCN”, a project led by the International Organization for Migration to empower young immigrants to become politically active. He has given lectures on issues related to immigration, the Islamic-Arabic world and the media.

Elise Hennebry is currently a Fundraising Executive at MTU with almost 10 years domestic and international experience in the non-profit and fundraising sector. Elise is a proud Ghanaian woman who has travelled extensively living in the USA, India, Poland, Spain and more recently has moved to and settled in Ireland. She has lived experience of being both an immigrant and international student.

Rohini Roy currently works as a Digital Data Analyst with Abtran, Ireland's leading provider of customer and business process management services. A native of India, she holds a 1st Class Honours Bachelor’s in Advertising and Marketing from the University of Calcutta. Having received a Government of Ireland Scholarship Award in 2017 she came to Ireland to study for her Masters. In 2018, she successfully graduated with a 1st Class Honours MA Global Business Practice from CIT coming top of her class and receiving Best Student Award at the CIT Faculty Awards 2018.