Seattle Colleges International Programs presents... Conversations with!
Seattle Colleges International Programs presents... Conversations with!
S3E14 Seattle Colleges Conversations with! 100th Episode with Johan François and Gina Nakamura
In this our fourteenth (14th) and 100th episode, Seattle Colleges host Evan Franulovich celebrates the 100th episode milestone with Johan François and Gina Nakamura, Associate Directors of International Programs Marketing & Outreach. They talk about Seattle Colleges, community colleges, the podcast and a lot more!
1:19 - Talking again with Johan and Gina!
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Evan Franulovich 0:05
Welcome to Seattle Colleges International Programs and our show 'Conversations with', where we talk to people that help you understand how you too, can be an international student in the United States and why Seattle Colleges should be your first choice. We'll talk to students and staff and agents and government folks, all kinds of people about what you can expect when you're getting ready to apply or travel here, what you'll experience while you're with us, and how it can all lead to an amazing life. Don't forget to check out the Seattle Colleges International Programs website at intl.seattlecolleges.edu where you can find a treasure trove of information about the school, the programs here and best of all, fill out and submit your application. Again, that's intl.seattlecolleges.edu.
Evan Franulovich 1:04
Hey everybody! Welcome back to Seattle Colleges 'Conversations with!' It's the 100th episode. 100th episode, can you believe it? 100 episodes ago, we started this. Wow. Thanks for joining me today. Our special guest, Johan. This is his third, third podcast.
Johan François 1:31
It's great. Happy to be here.
Evan Franulovich 1:33
Do you get approached on the street because you've been...?
Johan François 1:36
Not as often as you do. But yeah.
Evan Franulovich 1:39
Yeah?
Johan François 1:40
I was recognized in Mongolia, yeah, just from wearing my, you know, baseball cap with the Seattle Colleges logo on it. Yeah.
Evan Franulovich 1:49
All right.
Johan François 1:51
It does happen.
Evan Franulovich 1:52
It does happen. And of course we have Gina Nakamura.
Gina Nakamura 1:56
Hello!
Evan Franulovich 1:57
Now, if you were tuning in during season one, we didn't have video at that time, so this is your first time to gaze upon Gina. Welcome aboard.
Gina Nakamura 2:08
Thank you. Happy to be here.
Evan Franulovich 2:10
Thanks for helping me celebrate. We wanted to bring on our senior marketing and outreach team member.
Johan François 2:16
Yeah, you're making me sound so old.
Evan Franulovich 2:18
Well. Johan does come in with a cane, from to time.
Johan François 2:21
Yes, I do, I do, I do. But that's because of my knees.
Evan Franulovich 2:24
We should celebrate because yesterday, Johan got his 20 year pin with Seattle Colleges.
Johan François 2:33
You really want to make me feel old. Is that what you want do?
Evan Franulovich 2:37
You started when you were 10. So young.
Johan François 2:40
Yeah, 20 years with Seattle Colleges, crazy.
Evan Franulovich 2:43
20 years.
Gina Nakamura 2:43
20 years.
Johan François 2:43
With international programs.
Evan Franulovich 2:45
All right, so let's, you guys, if you're just tuning in because you haven't been, we want to let you know who these guys are exactly. You know their names, but tell, let's start with Gina. Let's start telling them. Where do you serve? What do you do exactly?
Gina Nakamura 3:00
So nice to meet you. I'm Gina, and my regions that I represent when I get to go abroad are Southeast Asia, minusVietnam and South Korea. I am from Seattle, so I'm born and raised here. I love my home city. I've never lived anywhere else. And I am a product of Seattle Colleges, so I am going on my 26th year here at Seattle Colleges, because I was able to start at 16 years old. So you can kind of do the math and see how old I am.
Johan François 3:38
Yeah, you started as a student.
Gina Nakamura 3:40
Started as a student.
Johan François 3:41
At South Seattle College.
Gina Nakamura 3:42
In a high school completion plus program that international students can also do right now, starting off college right away at 16, automatically getting your high school diploma. And then I eventually transferred on to the University of Washington, Seattle campus, Go Huskies! And yep, that was the end.
Evan Franulovich 4:00
Okay, well, we got to talk about high school completion plus a little bit more, because it's kind of dear to your heart. I think, yeah. So if you are just kind of joining us in this crazy show, you should know about high school completion plus, for international students. You want to give them the spiel? What is it exactly? Why is it so great?
Gina Nakamura 4:20
Well, first of all, it's unique in America, because there's only one state out of all of our states that can offer it, which is our state of Washington. And basically, to qualify, all you have to do is have at least completed a minimum of ninth grade on a transcript, on your high school transcript, showing a B average, and then you can start our process. You can apply, and as long as you're 16 by the first day of classes, voila, automatically, you can come here, sit down in class, and right next to you are college students. Nobody actually knows that you are 16 years old. You are just a college student. But when you finish your degree, say, a college transfer degree, which is most typical, you automatically can get your Washington State High School Diploma.
Evan Franulovich 5:09
Two for one.
Johan François 5:09
Amazing.
Evan Franulovich 5:11
That really is amazing.
Gina Nakamura 5:12
Boom!
Evan Franulovich 5:13
It's only in Washington?
Johan François 5:14
Yes.
Gina Nakamura 5:16
Lucky, lucky.
Johan François 5:17
Yeah.
Evan Franulovich 5:18
Wow. So this is a compelling reason for you to come to the state of Washington, come to one of our great community colleges here, and do the high school completion class program.
Johan François 5:25
Yeah, you can save even more time and money than usual, and it's definitely a great opportunity.
Evan Franulovich 5:31
Right.
Gina Nakamura 5:31
Depending on your birthday when you start, and if you want to take summers as a vacation or not, you can actually get a bachelor's degree by 19 years old.
Evan Franulovich 5:41
Wow. Well, I don't know about you guys, but I get approached a lot by kids that are paying private school tuition.
Johan François 5:46
Yes.
Evan Franulovich 5:47
I'm like, save that money guys.
Johan François 5:49
Yes, yes, if you are mature enough, and if you are motivated enough, and if you have, of course, good results in high school, why not go to college a little earlier than usual and get started with your higher education, you know,early so, yeah, it's a great opportunity.
Gina Nakamura 6:09
Maybe you're ready to leave your parents?
Johan François 6:11
Yeah.
Gina Nakamura 6:11
Maybe you want to do something exciting and fresh on the other side of the world. But maybe it also costs money, because so Johan can tell us about some additional ways to fund it?
Evan Franulovich 6:21
Oh!
Johan François 6:22
Sure, sure, sure.
Evan Franulovich 6:23
Is there money out there to be had for these kids?
Johan François 6:25
Yes, so we talked about scholarship in the past.
Evan Franulovich 6:28
Yes, we did.
Johan François 6:29
But it's probably the question we get asked the most often. You know, are there scholarships out there available for international students? Can I apply? How much can I get? You know, is there other ways I can reduce the cost of my tuition or my education? So, yeah, we are very happy to say that starting in January, any student doesn't matter if you're new or future student or currently enrolled at Seattle Colleges, all students can apply for our Foundation Scholarships, and these are up to $5,000 so it's a great opportunity, you know, for you, your friends, your classmates, to save money and reduce that cost. So don't hesitate, even if you haven't applied yet, you can start with your scholarship application and then work on your admission application later or at the same time. Sothose are two separate applications, and yeah, you should definitely, you know, not miss this opportunity this year. So these foundation scholarships are available every year from mid January to mid March. So there's a two month window of time for students to apply, and it's all done online, and it's merit based. So it's going to be mostly based on your grades, either in high school in your home country or in college here in the US, if you are enrolled in our colleges, you will have to write a couple personal statements, and you will need to provide some recommendation letters, so it's mostly based on your performance and your merits. And yeah, the good thing about the Foundation Scholarships, as you find out recently, is that there's one application, but you get considered for maybe 500 different scholarships.
Evan Franulovich 8:18
It's really crazy.
Johan François 8:19
Yeah, it saves you a lot of work and time and effort. So, yeah, it's a great opportunity for students.
Evan Franulovich 8:26
But since the last time we talked about scholarships, I've actually discovered a couple other scholarships, other than the Foundation Scholarship. Can you think of any others?
Johan François 8:33
Of course, yeah. So there are lots of different scholarships, sometimes some are offered by our office directly. And so you definitely, you know, can double up. So Foundation Scholarships are always available every year, regardless of your status. And then you can definitely, you know, if you see that something is available, apply also for others. So sometimes scholarships that we offer, I know our medical insurance provider offers scholarships twice a year.
Evan Franulovich 9:03
Pretty generous.
Johan François 9:04
Pretty generous. Our partner universities offer scholarships as well.
Evan Franulovich 9:09
Transfer scholarships.
Johan François 9:09
Yep, transfer scholarships are huge, and that's something definitely you'll look into when you get ready to transfer.
Evan Franulovich 9:16
Once you're here, if your grades are good, you can be invited into Phi Theta Kappa. Phi Theta Kappa has its own scholarships.
Johan François 9:23
Student honor societies.
Evan Franulovich 9:25
Yeah, so there's a lot of different ways you can fund your education. And did you work on campus when you were a student?
Gina Nakamura 9:30
I did work on campus, and I actually won this foundation scholarship that Johan just described to you two times.
Johan François 9:36
Same.
Gina Nakamura 9:36
And you as well. Yes, high five, high five.
Evan Franulovich 9:40
But you were a domestic student.
Gina Nakamura 9:42
Yeah, it's the same money. It's the same pot of money. It's the same. It's actually the exact same award. I won, the same amount of money as an international student would win, because it's up to the max amount of a domestic so that's what, same award. Oh, something I wanted to mention to you is, I get this question all the time, what are my chances of winning a foundation scholarship, when I talk to them about it.
Johan François 10:09
$5,000.
Gina Nakamura 10:09
Right, which, by the way, that amount is about half of your tuition cost for a year. So we're talking about winning a scholarship that would cover approximately 50% of your tuition. Well, let me tell you that, based on last year's statistics, half of all applicants that applied to the Foundation Scholarship won.
Johan François 10:29
Got something.
Gina Nakamura 10:30
Got something. So it is definitely something that you should think about is worth your time and effort and energy to fill out the scholarship application.
Johan François 10:39
Yeah, and also, I'm sure you were about to say it, but the average award that the student won was around $4,000 so even though there are smaller awards like maybe $500, $1,000, a lot of students are able to get some of those higher amounts, 3000, 4000, 5000. So, we even know students in our office, several of them actually, who got the $5,000 awards. So again, not unusual, if you put the effort into your application, work on your personal statements, make sure you pick a good teacher for your recommendation letters, you have a very good chance, because there's a lot of money in that pot, and the foundation has to distribute that money for scholarships. They cannot keep it for themselves, so they want to give it away to you guys, and you just need to apply and do a good job on your application, and then you have a very good chance.
Evan Franulovich 11:35
Right. And, you know, don't forget to like and subscribe to the podcast, because in the next few weeks, just before the scholarship opens for application, I did an interview with the director of the foundation, and she came on the show and gave us a bunch of really great information about that scholarship specifically. So be sure to tune into that one and listen. You'll learn a lot, I did, I learned a lot.
Johan François 11:58
You're doing a great job for all our students. You know, getting all that intel, you know, all that information out there. So, yeah, tune in up for that episode. That will pay dividends for sure.
Evan Franulovich 12:08
For sure.
Gina Nakamura 12:08
And then another way to get that money in your pocket is to work. And you can legally work while you are a student here. And that's what I did, and that's what Johan did, actually. So we started off as part time student workers, and when I started off in my job, minimum wage in Seattle was $5. Okay.
Evan Franulovich 12:31
Wow.
Gina Nakamura 12:32
But what is minimum wage in Seattle?
Johan François 12:34
Today!
Gina Nakamura 12:35
Now it is just under $20 an hour, and starting January 1, 2025, It will be almost $21 an hour for minimum wage. Now, if you think about that, you can work up to 20 hours a week at approximately $20 an hour. And you think about having a part time job, you in a heartbeat with one part time job can cover the cost of tuition and then some. So a part time job could really make the difference to help pay for your rent, your housing you know, your subscriptions, your Netflix, your Hulu, your cell phone, your gaming, exactly everything.
Evan Franulovich 13:19
Now that's really good point. Yeah, but most students work between 10 and 15 hours, maybe. So 20 is the max, and some do do 20, but I would count on maybe a little less, just a good budgeting.
Johan François 13:34
It's based on the workload that the you know the office will have available. So it could be up to 20 hours, it could be less. But anything is good, and anything helps. So even if you work 10 hours at $20 an hour, that would be 200 bucks a week, you know. So 800 bucks a month.
Evan Franulovich 13:53
Do they get taxed?
Johan François 13:54
They do pay taxes. Of course, it's income. But as a student, they're not going to be working, you know, that many hours, and so because of that, when the time comes for them to pay taxes, it's going to be either zero or very small amounts.
Evan Franulovich 14:08
And the state of Washington has no income tax.
Johan François 14:10
Yeah.
Evan Franulovich 14:10
Oregon does.
Johan François 14:11
Also, when you pay your taxes, you get credits also for the tuition that you pay at the school. And so that also offsets the whatever tax burden you may have to face.
Evan Franulovich 14:21
What you talking about?
Gina Nakamura 14:22
Oh, it's complicated, but on a tax form, but international students you typically don't meet, yeah, there is no tax benefits.
Evan Franulovich 14:29
Don't worry about it. Okay, well, we didn't even get, so this is the first time seeing Johan tell everybody which parts of the world you cover.
Johan François 14:38
Yeah. So I'm Johan, I'm part of the marketing and outreach team here at Seattle Colleges, and we do assist, of course, students from all over the world, but me, specifically, I help students from Western Europe, Vietnam, Mongolia and up to, recently, Taiwan. And so yeah, I've been here many years, and I had a chance to travel tomany different countries, some that you handle now (Evan), some that you handle now (Gina), but now my focus is on the region that I mentioned. So, Western Europe, Vietnam, Mongolia, and then still a little bit of Taiwan.
Evan Franulovich 15:13
Okay. Yeah, of those places, what is your favorite place?
Johan François 15:18
Oh, my God, don't do this to me, I can't, I can't pick a place, you know. There's good things about, there's amazing things about every country. And I say that, you know, very honestly, it really depends. But, you know, like Vietnam and Mongolia are very different places, but the people are usually, you know, very great people, amazing people. It's always fun to talk to parents and students, especially about education. I was a teacher before I came to the US, and so education has a very special place in my heart, and I think we have a very uniquejob in that sense, that you know, or chance that we're helping people, you know, build their lives. And so that's really, really, really amazing. But the food is great too. It's great to be able to taste all the different foods from the different countries or different regions of the world. So yeah.
Evan Franulovich 16:17
Yeah, Western Europe, Vietnam, Mongolia. Great places to hang out.
Johan François 16:22
Yeah.
Evan Franulovich 16:22
What's been your great experience so far in your regions? I know you can't narrow it down to which is your favorite, but like, we like one particular instance that was really memorable. I mean, you just went to Bali.
Gina Nakamura 16:37
I know, life is hard, you know, on the beaches of Bali. I really appreciate in my regions, I really appreciate the weather change. To be honest, I love going to places like Thailand and Indonesia and Cambodia, especially because I come to learn that students in those areas and regions, they actually really want my weather. They want cool air every day. Yeah, they will choose air conditioned air any day over being outside. And I will choose the opposite.
Evan Franulovich 17:12
Right.
Gina Nakamura 17:12
It's been really, really eye opening to see that.
Johan François 17:16
We often crave where we don't have. That's all it is, guys.
Evan Franulovich 17:21
But I gotta say, when I go to the education fairs in Brazil, like the kids I talk to, they're like, where you thinking about going to school? They're like, Florida. And I'm like, why? Why are you gonna go to Florida? It's just like Brazil.
Johan François 17:31
Yeah.
Evan Franulovich 17:32
Come to Washington, have a different experience. And then they realize Gray's Anatomy is from Seattle.
Gina Nakamura 17:37
That's right, that's right. Don't forget, you know, the first Starbucks in the world. You can just walk there from Seattle Central College. You know, Sleepless in Seattle might be a little bit old, but Grey's Anatomy is newer, even newer we've got Twilight was filmed in Washington. You might know those.
Evan Franulovich 17:54
If you listen to some of the past podcasts, we've had students on the show who are like Twilight junkies and go on pilgrimages to Forks, Washington or down to the Columbia River Gorge to see the filming spots.
Johan François 18:07
Great spots.
Evan Franulovich 18:08
All right, well, so we can't narrow down to a favorite place, but let's talk about you mentioned parents. So how do you recommend people use these podcasts to get their parents up to speed. I mean, it's hard sometimes because they have can, kids seem pretty open minded to just about anything, but sometimes parents have an idea of what of what they think is going on.
Johan François 18:34
Of course, yes, and it's a big part of the process, I think. It's totally fine for you guys, if you're a student, to do some research on your own first, you know, I think you have to take ownership of that process. And so I personally prefer when students, you know, are motivated and involved in their own research, because you know, it's your studies, it's your life, it's your future, you know. And so if your parents make all the decisions for you, probably it's not going to be, you know, the best situation. So of course, your parents input is very, very important. They're your parents. They're probably the ones paying for you to come study here, but you have to be, you know, it kind of in charge a little bit of your of your education. So as you know, when you come here, you'll be considered an adult, and you'll be asked to make decisions all the time. And I think it starts, you know, if you want to come study in the US and in our colleges, you have to start that process, you know, early on, so be involved. You know, you know you're already listening to this podcast. Hopefully, you visited a bunch of different websites, looked at different schools already, if not, get started on that process, and gather a lot of information. So that way, when you go to your parents, you already have a little bit of a plan, and you can talk to them, you know, in detail about the things you want to do. And that way, if they have questions, or if they wonder why you want to do a certain thing, you'll have already reasons for why you want to go to the US or go to Seattle Colleges or another school. So do your research, think about why you want to actually go study abroad, and have multiple reasons, and then make sure you have details and, you know, kind of create a plan for yourself. And then have an open, you know, sometime, I think as a young student, I remember when I was a long time ago, when I was young, yeah, long, long time ago. Sometime, you know, we can be a little afraid of having honest conversations with our parents. It's not always easy maybe to talk to our parents, especially when we want to talk about such a big project as, you know, going to America to study, but remember that you know your parents, of course, love you, and they want you know the best for you. So again, if you come with a plan, and if you explain things and just kind of let them understand you know, who you are and what you want to do, I think your parents will probably, you know, respond to that in a positive way. So, yeah, it's a big process, of course. And the other thing is that, of course, it's an ongoing conversation. You know, when you first start, you know, to talk about studying abroad. Your parents may not be convinced right away, but, you know, invite them to maybe reach out to us or to other schools, invite them to go to a study abroad fair or, you know, to go to a seminar or webinar, so they can learn more themselves, and they can ask questions a lot of the time, you know, we fear what we don't know. So, you know, studying abroad can be kind of scary and, like, it seems like it's a big process, when, really, you know, there's tons of people like us ready to help people. So, you know, there's tons of people out there ready to answer questions. With internet today, you can find lots of details anyway. So yeah.
Evan Franulovich 22:16
We do a question and answer every... Yeah, go ahead, Gina.
Gina Nakamura 22:18
Yeah. Actually, I was, something I was going to say is that your parents might not be as tech savvy as you are. I speak from experience, and so you know, help them. I know it's painful, okay, trust me, but you know how to reach out to us. You know how to chat. You know how to click zoom. You know how to find us on social media. You know how to find this podcast and your parents might not, so be gentle. Know that it's harder for older generations, and help them so that they can really see that we are live real people, and we can actually do live zooms every Monday with you, and that's what Evan was just mentioning. So every Monday, depending on your time zone, in Seattle time, we hold an early session and a late session, so that whatever time of the world, hopefully there will be a possible opportunity for you to drop in and talk to us live, instead of a pre recording like this or some information that is already uploaded on the internet. You can ask your actual, come with questions to ask us, and we can talk about them, and your parents might feel more confident in that, because it is as close to human interaction as possible.
Evan Franulovich 23:35
And parents are welcome, by the way. Usually when I've done the Q&A sessions, it's generally just students, but I have seen one parent come on. The two of them were together, actually. So yeah, don't be afraid to bring your uncle. I mean, we're here to answer questions, and we like to, I mean, clearly we like to talk about Seattle Colleges and what community colleges have to offer. I didn't go to Seattle Colleges myself, but I did graduate from a community college, so I'm a big believer in the system, and it's really great. So yeah, take advantage of us. And we're just three of what do we got? We're up to six, seven people in the team.
Johan François 24:10
Seven.
Evan Franulovich 24:11
There's a lot of people to talk to, if you need to. So we, we've recently hired two others.
Johan François 24:17
Two other marketers.
Evan Franulovich 24:18
Two other marketers, and they cover the rest of the world that we know, except for Japan, Mizue, maybe you've met Mizue out there in Japan, she's doing that. Leslie handles Canada, US, and Australia. We'd love to have some Australians, yeah.
Gina Nakamura 24:34
But that means for you customer service. You get your own personal representative for your area of the world that knows about your unique challenges, of your area, your country's rules, cultures, everything surrounding your area we specialize in, so know that you're not talking to an AI robot. We are actually going to personally help you through this process.
Evan Franulovich 24:59
What are some of the challenges you're seeing in your region? I mean, I know, I serve Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, a lot of visa issues. What do you see over in your area?
Gina Nakamura 25:10
I would say my highest challenge is in the region known as Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, they have gone through some political unrest in the past few years, in a way that sometimes prevents students in that area from getting transcripts because their schools don't exist, or their transcript ability is not there. There's lots of different reasons why it might be challenging for someone from that region to get a visa or to get documents needed for application. But guess what? Seattle Colleges knows about all of those issues. We are aware. We work with students from that region all the time, and we now have a thriving and great population from Myanmar. So just know that whatever the challenges are, we are aware of them. That's why we're here to help you. Come.
Evan Franulovich 25:58
Over a 1000 students, and I don't remember how many, quite a few from Myanmar. It seems like, I'm always running into them in the hallway. What about what are your big issues? Because Western Europe is way different than...?
Johan François 26:11
Yeah. So Western Europe. Something unique about Western Europe is that in many countries there, higher education is pretty much free, if you compare to the cost of studying college or university in the US. So, so it's sometimes, you know, it's a bit hard to convince someone to spend so much more money to get a degree compared to studying, you know, in their own country in Europe. And then, of course, in Europe, they have the Erasmus program that allows the student there to study, you know, within a European country, yeah, so for pretty much the same price they would in their home institution. So, yeah, it takes kind of a special person to understand the benefits of studying abroad and studying in the US. And so usually with our European students, we see a lot of a gap year students, or students who are doing, you know, maybe a semester abroad or six months abroad, so kind of often a shorter type of program, but compared to maybe Vietnam or Mongolia, where it's more long term.
Evan Franulovich 27:16
We did a podcast with a girl from Norway, who is here on a short term certificate. Her significant other was at University of Washington, so, yeah, spent a year here studying with us. Yeah, back off to Norway.
Johan François 27:29
It's all good. You know, it doesn't matter how long you go abroad, if you get a chance to study abroad, it could be only three months, it could be a year, it could be six years, who knows. But any experience, in my opinion, is good, and it will change your mind and just open your eyes to different things. So if you get the chance to study abroad, and it doesn't have to be the US, it could be going to Singapore or Hong Kong or wherever, just getting out of your own country, your own culture, meeting new people, studying in a different way, and all that stuff is going to be good to you.
Gina Nakamura 28:10
I'm jealous, I'm jealous. I miss that only thing I regret, the only thing I regret of my educational career, between community college, university all the way up to Masters, is that I never studied abroad, and if I could redo my own life 100% I would have done a study abroad. Did you do study abroad?
Evan Franulovich 28:27
Well, I was an exchange student.
Gina Nakamura 28:29
Oh, so you did. That's my one regret. Don't follow my example. Okay, you do study abroad.
Evan Franulovich 28:35
You're kind of doing it now.
Johan François 28:36
Yes.
Evan Franulovich 28:37
You are student.
Gina Nakamura 28:37
I'm making up for it.
Evan Franulovich 28:38
You're making up for it, in a big way.
Johan François 28:41
Now, the thing that most international students do not know is, obviously, if you come from, let's say Vietnam, and you come study here, that's already your study abroad experience, right? But here we have opportunities for our students to go study abroad also and still get credits for their degree here. So if you happen to be an international student from, let's say, Vietnam. Studying here, you can join a special program to go to Italy or Spain or Costa Rica or wherever. We have lots of different ones, and for maybe three months, maybe six months, they might have different length, but and it would still count for your degree at Seattle Colleges. Would you just happen to spend that three months at a different institution overseas? So you can double up on your study abroad. You can, you know...
Evan Franulovich 29:30
That is pretty cool.
Johan François 29:31
...Yeah, times two.
Gina Nakamura 29:31
And triple it, because when you get to university, at University of Washington, they have amazing study abroad opportunities there too.
Evan Franulovich 29:39
I always forget to talk to students about that kind of thing. So do we have numbers like, do we know how many of our international students...
Johan François 29:45
Sancha probably would know more. Sancha is one of our colleagues, and she's in charge of study abroad for students here. So she could probably, you know, if you haven't done a podcast with her, we'll have to convince her to do a podcast.
Evan Franulovich 29:56
Yeah, Sancha!
Johan François 29:58
Sancha we're gonna call you out. But yeah, so she could tell us more about all the different programs they have. I know they have things pretty much every quarter. And every quarter is a different destination. So we were talking about, you know, Rome and Spain and Costa Rica. It's very, you know, it's varied. So, If you don't like Italy for some weird reason, you know, you can go to lots of other places.
Evan Franulovich 30:23
Who wouldn't like Italy?
Johan François 30:24
I don't know.
Gina Nakamura 30:25
Forget about it.
Evan Franulovich 30:28
Yeah, since this is our 100th episode, I thought it might be fun just to throw some numbers out there. We've gone from, when we first kind of started we had about 1000 subscribers. We're now over 64,000 subscribers.
Johan François 30:43
Wow! Amazing.
Evan Franulovich 30:44
That's a big day.
Gina Nakamura 30:44
Evan! Congratulations!
Evan Franulovich 30:46
I want to thank you guys for joining. There's a lot of people who might be listening that haven't liked and subscribed. Please subscribe. We really want to increase those numbers. In fact, I would love to set a goal.
Johan François 30:58
100,000!
Evan Franulovich 30:58
100,000 subscribers.
Johan François 30:59
Yes, yes.
Evan Franulovich 31:00
By summer.
Gina Nakamura 31:02
End of the school year.
Evan Franulovich 31:03
Yes, End of the school year. You can help me. Our dream come true to reach over 100,000 subscribers.
Johan François 31:10
Every one of you should recruit two friends or one friend, one parent, up to you, you can choose.
Evan Franulovich 31:19
And your uncle.
Johan François 31:19
And have them subscribe.
Evan Franulovich 31:21
Yeah.
Johan François 31:21
Right, and they will definitely get there by the end of the school year.
Evan Franulovich 31:24
Yeah, help us make it happen. And then when you come here, we'll definitely have a little party for you. Probably. Okay, so yeah. So we've grown a lot. Interestingly enough, season two, episode 22 has the most YouTube views, with 67,000 views.
Johan François 31:42
Wow. And that was a student from...?
Evan Franulovich 31:44
It was one of our students, I don't remember off my mind. I think she's from South Asia somewhere, actually.
Johan François 31:50
Okay.
Evan Franulovich 31:50
And then we have, first season was just on audio. Now we have both video and audio. So it seems like most people are watching the show on YouTube, but we do have over 2500 downloads on Buzzsprout and, you know, Apple podcasts, Spotify, so a lot of people still are listening in, which is great. We love that. And the most popular episode with season one, episode one with Meral, who's from Turkmenistan. So check out that first episode. It's really great. Things have changed, we have new mics now and the show's grown a little bit. The second most popular, and you guys might get questions about this, is with our housing coordinator.
Johan François 32:36
Ah!
Gina Nakamura 32:36
Oh, yeah.
Evan Franulovich 32:37
Yeah, season one, episode eight, audio only. But, yeah, do you guys get questioned a lot about housing?
Johan François 32:42
Of course, all the time.
Evan Franulovich 32:43
Yeah.
Johan François 32:44
Yeah.
Evan Franulovich 32:44
I think I just read in the ISF, you know, we get the news breakdowns. They were talking about things that were important to international students. And I think fifth on the list was housing, really. I mean, I don't get a ton of questions, or it's kind of an afterthought question like, oh, what do you what do kids do for housing?
Johan François 33:04
Yeah, I think people probably, in the beginning focus more on the school and the program and the major, and then, you know, maybe once they get admitted and they get their visa, then they're like, oh, shoot, I'm gonna need to live somewhere.
Evan Franulovich 33:17
Right.
Johan François 33:17
So, you know, do you have on campus apartments, or do you have dorms or homestay? And those questions start to come a little bit later. But you know, if you're looking for schools and if you haven't already selected one, make sure to ask them about housing, because that's a big part of your life on campus or, you know, abroad. So yeah, ask your school about the different housing options they have, how much it costs, because that can make a difference too. So yeah.
Evan Franulovich 33:48
So what's our housing options? Gina, what can kids do for housing?
Gina Nakamura 33:53
Well, we're so lucky, because actually most community colleges in the US do not offer housing options on campus, but we had the forethought many, many years ago to build it right at Seattle Central's campus, which is right in the middle of the three of our locations. So you have three locations to choose from, and our housing is located at the middle location of our city, the one closer to the downtown, the one right on the line, by the way, you can get off the airport. You can hop on the light rail and just get off at our campus, which is also where the housing is located at Seattle Central. And the very next stop after that is University of Washington, and then it's North Seattle. So it's very easy.
Johan François 34:32
And for those who don't know light rail. Light rail is just subway. It's just a different term for the subway.
Evan Franulovich 34:38
It's really is easy to use and save. It's great. It really is great.
Johan François 34:42
Yeah, unless you arrive late at night. So if you arrive late at night, first time, especially, you'll have probably a bunch of suitcases with you.
Gina Nakamura 34:49
Just Uber.
Johan François 34:50
Yeah, just Uber your way to whatever place you're staying at. But if you arrive, maybe during the day or later on, once you're here and you become familiar with the city, yeah, the light rail, the link, the subway system, is great.
Gina Nakamura 35:04
And by the way, it's different. Universities often have things called dorms. And I'd like to point out that we do not say dorms, nor do we have dorms, because it's a lot more friends style. Have you seen the episode the show Friends? You know you have an apartment and you live across the hallway from someone else with an apartment, they are called apartment studios, so basically they have full kitchens. When you live on campus with us, full bathrooms, and you have your choice. You can live with two people, three people or four people. So you know you can create your own Friends episode for yourself.
Evan Franulovich 35:39
That's true, and the rent, by the way, is different depending on if it's a two person or a three person or fourperson.
Johan François 35:44
And how long you stay.
Evan Franulovich 35:46
Yeah, exactly. So contact Olivia Deville, our housing person. You can watch season one, episode eight, to listen all about housing. What are some of the other options that we have besides...?
Johan François 35:55
Home stay, of course.
Evan Franulovich 35:57
Home stay, of course.
Johan François 35:57
And because we're in Seattle, there are tons of private apartments off campus that students eventually can rent. So the off campus apartment is something that's a little hard to book, maybe from your home country in the beginning, because you don't know Seattle, most likely, and you're not able to visit you know the building in the apartment. And you want to be careful when trying to book an apartment from overseas, because there's a lot of scams out there.
Evan Franulovich 36:23
Right.
Johan François 36:23
So we typically, yeah, recommend maybe starting with homestay or the on campus apartments, because then, you know, it's easier to coordinate and reserve. And then once you're here and you make friends at school, once you know the city a little better than just you'll be able to find your own apartment and share it with maybe some classmates to save money.
Evan Franulovich 36:45
Right. Friends seem like the important part.
Gina Nakamura 36:47
Yes, exactly. You will make friends. Come stay in our housing situation, and you will make friends. A lot of them make friends and then move out together into their own local apartments and condos in the neighborhood.
Evan Franulovich 37:00
Well, that's why we encourage you to, I mean, you're supposed to come to orientation. We encourage you to get to orientation.
Johan François 37:05
It's mandatory.
Evan Franulovich 37:05
It's mandatory.
Johan François 37:07
Yeah.
Evan Franulovich 37:09
We want you there because you network with the other students.
Johan François 37:12
Yes.
Evan Franulovich 37:13
It's a great place to meet other students, other people looking for housing. You can find great roommates there, and it's fun. Usually, we do some games and eat and do that kind of stuff.
Johan François 37:25
Yeah.
Gina Nakamura 37:25
And you can make friends. We have international students right now at Seattle Colleges from over 86 different countries. So your group of friends is going to be so multicultural and international.
Evan Franulovich 37:36
It's true. Well, in the podcast, I was looking at some of the countries we've served, just Canada, Afghanistan, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, Libya, Ghana, South Africa, Madagascar, Cote d'Ivoire, Eswatini. Do you guys know the former name of Eswatini?
Gina Nakamura 37:55
I do not.
Evan Franulovich 37:57
Swaziland.
Johan François 37:58
Oh, Swaziland.
Evan Franulovich 38:00
Yeah, not too many people though. Eswatini, Burundi, Uganda, Cameroon, Kenya, Belize, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Bahamas, Peru, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Germany, UK, Russia, no Russians.
Johan François 38:15
Taiwan, Vietnam.
Evan Franulovich 38:16
Mongolia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, of course.
Johan François 38:19
Korea, probably.
Evan Franulovich 38:19
China, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh. So when you guys are on the road, do you encourage people to listen to podcasts? Because it makes your job easier. I mean, does it help you?
Johan François 38:35
Definitely, I think, outside of all the great information that you talk about and the guests talk about, I think it's a good way also to just practice English. So of course, some of our students maybe their English level is already super good, and so maybe, you know, they don't need to practice as much. But many of our students maybe have an intermediate level, or just like a, you know, low college level, and just being able to either listen to the podcast or just watch this YouTube video, I think, is a great way to kind of practice those listening skills.
Evan Franulovich 39:10
Right, and we got transcripts on there, on most episodes.
Johan François 39:14
So I think, you know, you're probably sitting in the bus going to school at some point. Hey, you got that 20-30 minute, block of time, you know. And why not listen to the podcast doing that?
Evan Franulovich 39:25
Yeah, it's not academic English. It's just people talking.
Johan François 39:28
Yeah, and it's gonna be probably, you know, more in line with the kind of conversations you'll have with other student, you know, because your classmates, your friends, you're not going to speak, you know, academic English, you're just going to have a relaxed conversation like we are right now. And maybe there's going to be some slang or, you know...
Evan Franulovich 39:50
Likely.
Johan François 39:51
Yeah, likely, right? So you kind of need to be prepared for that kind of, like, relaxed, friendly conversation. Yeah, great way to practice, I think, and you're learning at the same time, so it doesn't hurt.
Evan Franulovich 40:04
So, maybe I'll let Gina talk about SCIE, for just a second. It's the only program we really haven't touched on too much yet. If you one of the parts of the application process is you have to take some sort of an English proficiency exam. If you don't do well on the exam, don't panic. Why?
Gina Nakamura 40:24
Because you can come to Seattle Colleges at any level of English that you currently are.
Evan Franulovich 40:30
Right?
Gina Nakamura 40:30
So don't stress. Take a Duolingo if you want. Take an IELTS, take a TOEFL, use your SAT. Use whatever you like. We have a list of things we accept. But if your level isn't at the very, very top college placement level, no big deal, because we have SCIE, which just stands for Seattle Colleges Institute of English. It just means we have a special school for you at the Seattle Central Campus just for English. So whatever level you're at, we will place you in that level, and you're good to go in the middle. So you could start with perhaps a very low level of English.
Johan François 41:08
Intensive English.
Gina Nakamura 41:09
Intensive English, and then all the way up to college level in the middle. There's also an opportunity to do a combination of both, so that you have a nice seamless transition from learning Intensive English at the lower level to what we call three level three, it's in the middle to start taking college level classes, all the way until you can just take all college level classes.
Johan François 41:32
Right. Yeah, I think that's a great difference between our program compared to other ESL schools, other ESL schools, they're usually not affiliated with college or university, and so they only offer ESL classes. But here, because the Institute of English is part of the college, we are able to integrate college classes into the curriculum. So as you mentioned, level three, four and five, the upper three level of the program. Students are already taking college courses part time, and it's a great way to, you know, get ready for college. It's a nice little challenge, and all these credits that you get from these classes will eventually count for your degree. So you're actually saving time and a little bit of money by taking these college classes as part of your ESL program.
Evan Franulovich 42:22
Well, let's say they're in an ESL program, like I've interviewed students for the show that were going to a language school down in Los Angeles or San Francisco, maybe even here in Seattle or some other part of the country. What can those students do?
Johan François 42:35
Well, I mean, obviously we work with a lot of these ESL schools, and often we have agreements with them, where, if you reach a certain level, then you can transfer it into our program. So definitely ask your school if they have an agreement with Seattle Colleges. That could happen. And then, regardless, even if you don't have a transfer agreement you can, you know, progress once you get to a certain level, take your exam. Show us what your level is, and then you'll be able to transfer it into our program. So, of course, my our advice is always for you to try to practice English as much as you can right. The more you can learn in your home country, the higher you can, you know, take your level of English, the better, because it's going to save you time and money once you get here. But sometimes it can be really hard to learn English very well in your home country because you don't have many English speakers, maybe. Or, you know, you don't have a good ESL school there, and you're speaking your own language most of the day with everybody else. So even if you spend one hour every day studying, that still doesn't equate to a lot of time. So at some point, you know, it might make more sense for you to come here once you are in the US. Well, guess what? You're going to have to speak English pretty much 90% of the time, and you all go to school for 20 hours a week, so it's going to be a pretty intensive process, but that's how you learn very well and very quickly, and it's going to make a huge difference for you.
Evan Franulovich 44:13
So someone that speaks two languages, what do you call that person?
Johan François 44:16
Bilingual?
Evan Franulovich 44:16
And what do you call a person that speaks just one language?
Gina Nakamura 44:20
Unilingual, me.
Evan Franulovich 44:21
American. So if you come to the United States, not many Americans speak a second language.
Johan François 44:27
A lot of people do in Seattle.
Gina Nakamura 44:30
But not Americans, but not Americans. Typical Americans are like me.
Johan François 44:35
Seattle is a pretty diverse place, and it's actually one of the most educated cities in the US. So we kind of joke about the fact that most Americans, yeah, maybe are not so well versed into, you know, the world affairs and foreign languages and traveling abroad and all that. But people here in Seattle are, so there's tons of people here who speak, you know, who are different cultures and speak different languages. But it's true that if you go, you know, let's say maybe to some remote areas of Texas or Washington State or wherever, yes, there maybe people don't speak as much.
Evan Franulovich 45:15
Seattle is pretty cosmopolitan.
Johan François 45:16
Seattle is very cosmopolitan.
Gina Nakamura 45:18
Yeah, we are like a baby San Francisco, I always tell people. We're hilly, we've got fog or gray skies, we have lots of tech companies, and our cost of living is rising. So we're just like a little San Francisco.
Evan Franulovich 45:33
Our summers are glorious. It's always great.
Gina Nakamura 45:35
Perfect. They're perfect.
Evan Franulovich 45:36
Gina, we know that you go out quite a bit. For those guys that are coming. Where should they go? What are the best clubs? Or places to go out.
Johan François 45:49
See he didn't ask me that question, because he knows Johan.
Evan Franulovich 45:55
But Gina, I know.
Johan François 45:57
I know a few good lounges. Yeah, I do. I'll show you. So it's true that I'm not really a club guy, even when I was younger, I never really liked going out to clubs. You love dancing. That probably makes a lot more sense for you. But I do have to say that there are quite a few lounges on rooftops here in Seattle, and there's one called The Nest.
Gina Nakamura 46:24
I like The Nest at the Thompson hotel.
Johan François 46:27
That is really, really nice. It's near the waterfront, and you're at the top floor of that of this nice hotel, and you get a beautiful view of the Seattle Waterfront. And in the spring, summer, fall, when the weather is really nice. It's a great place to have a drink or just spend time with your friends. So tons of great places for if you're more of a loungy, you know, cocktail kind of person. There's tons of places like this, and they often have DJs, so you can still have, you know, a little bit of that club atmosphere. But you have to be 21 in the US. They are very strict about going out, yeah, so if you come from Europe, be ready to not be able to go out as much.
Gina Nakamura 47:10
There are still some places. So we do have some underage clubs. They're more rare than the over 21 places. But we also just have a lot of cool spots in Seattle to hang out that isn't related to age. So for example, we have a great theater and art scene the first Thursday of every month in Seattle, almost all of our museums are free, and you can walk around to all different neighborhoods. My favorite, one of my favorites is the Museum of Flight. You can actually check out a real Air Force One that the President used to fly in. You can see those kind of stealth airplanes from Top Gun hanging in the air. And you can hang out there till 9pm at night, which is pretty late for a museum. There's a lot of hookah bars in Seattle. You know, we're a very big coffee shop person. There's a lot of these lounges and bars like Johan mentioned, that are on top of roofs. We're also a big speakeasy city, which is kind of cool. Once you start to become 21 you get to go to these kind of unique hole in the walls, secret entries, secret doors, secret words to get in. Of course, we have the typical clubs. I'm it's a little past my era of clubs, but right across the street from Seattle Central, actually a block away. We do have a very popular club that hosts a lot of current EDM DJs that travel around the world and do lots of raves. I recently saw Sickick there a few months ago. This club is called Q, which is a block away. And then we also have these really large venues close by for big concerts. So, Taylor Swift for example, she caused a little earthquake by the way in Seattle from everyone jumping. It's very true. I just saw the Rolling Stones a few months ago here in Seattle last weekend, it's probably before your time, but I saw Cyndi Lauper. There are big name concerts that come straight to the middle of downtown Seattle because we have sports venues that hold these concert venues. So we've got a baseball team that we have concerts at. We have a football team, It's a different stadium. We also have where I saw Cyndi Lauper, we have a hockey team. And so those are three large areas that you can see great musicians and great concerts, and very affordable. My Cyndi Lauper ticket was $24.
Evan Franulovich 49:20
Oh, that's crazy. Was it a deal?
Gina Nakamura 49:25
No, it was just the regular prices.
Evan Franulovich 49:26
Just $20?
Gina Nakamura 49:27
Yeah, I saw Maroon 5 a couple years ago. There's a couple theaters that are farther that you have to drive away from. They're called amphitheaters. They're kind of in this outdoor kind of location. Those are pretty amazing, but they're much larger. They take sometimes an hour or even two to drive to. Saw Maroon 5 there for $20.
Evan Franulovich 49:46
That's crazy.
Gina Nakamura 49:47
Yeah, great deals.
Johan François 49:48
Tons of opportunities.
Evan Franulovich 49:49
By the way, a lot of great bands came out of Seattle.
Gina Nakamura 49:52
That's right.
Evan Franulovich 49:53
Jimi Hendrix.
Johan François 49:55
Nirvana.
Evan Franulovich 49:57
Macklemore.
Gina Nakamura 49:58
Yep. And Macklemore is a former student, by the way, alum of Seattle Colleges. He and his brother came to Seattle Colleges before then transferring to Evergreen State College. That's right.
Evan Franulovich 50:07
Did you meet him?
Gina Nakamura 50:08
I did all the time.
Evan Franulovich 50:09
What?!
Gina Nakamura 50:09
Yep, I was here.
Johan François 50:11
He still lives in Seattle, so you can see him around.
Evan Franulovich 50:13
Really?
Johan François 50:13
Yeah.
Evan Franulovich 50:14
Shout out to Macklemore.
Gina Nakamura 50:15
But the big one is Nirvana. Kurt Cobain invented grunge, if you don't know, check it out.
Evan Franulovich 50:23
Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, a lot of great grunge bands came out of Seattle.
Johan François 50:28
Rock bands, yeah. Karaoke also.
Evan Franulovich 50:31
Of course, yeah.
Johan François 50:32
We have a karaoke lounge not too far from campus here at Central.
Gina Nakamura 50:36
Same block as our studio apartment.
Johan François 50:38
Yeah, so if you're into karaoke, of course you can probably have a karaoke party at home.
Evan Franulovich 50:44
It's a bit different than the karaoke I did in Asia. I lived in China. Here it's like, everybody's out in the open.
Johan François 50:51
They do have their own reason why. It's true that they tend to, you know, do the one in the big room.
Gina Nakamura 50:58
That's the Asian style, by the way. The Asian style is in the room and the American style is the out in the bar for everyone to see you.
Evan Franulovich 51:04
And if you're into the outdoors as well. I mean, we're all talking about going out and stuff, but if you're into the outdoors, there's hardly a better place.
Johan François 51:10
There's something for everyone in Seattle. So whether you like the arts or...
Evan Franulovich 51:15
Skiing.
Johan François 51:15
Yeah, nature or sports, culture, you know, we talked about museums, you know, or going out and just having fun. There's, you know, there's tons of stuff to do, so you'll never be bored. And the good thing is that you're going to be meeting people that have different interests than you, and so they might introduce you to something new, and you might fall in love with something that you know you didn't used to do in your home country, right? So, yeah.
Evan Franulovich 51:44
Well, it's already 50 minutes. We're getting near the end here. So we got to wrap this up. We could talk about Seattle Colleges all day, and we often do, but we should do last words of wisdom. You know, we talked to tons and tons of students. We are on the road a lot. Come see us on the road. By the way, let us know. If you want to see us in your country, just send us a message. Bring
Johan François 52:05
your parents. Bring you if you know that we're coming to your city or your country, and you know, if you know that we are attending a special event where you live, come over, of course. Come say hello to us, but try to bring your parents with you. You know that'll be that way. We can do the the all the heavy lifting, as we say, and hopefully help you convince them to let you go study abroad. All right.
Evan Franulovich 52:31
Final Words of wisdom, Gina.
Gina Nakamura 52:34
Final words of wisdom, I say, hunt for money. There is money out there for you. And if you're willing to hunt for it, like I did, you can cover a lot of your expenses in relation to your tuition. Hunt for money.
Evan Franulovich 52:51
I mean, it's out there, It's hard sometimes.
Johan François 52:52
That's a good word.
Evan Franulovich 52:53
But it's out there.
Johan François 52:54
That's a good word. You have to be active in anything you do, right?
Evan Franulovich 52:59
Yeah, I'll take that piece of advice a step further, I would say, be persistent in all aspects of your international student career in my regions, especially, getting a visa is especially challenging in a lot of countries, so if you don't get it on your first try, don't despair. Go back, get with Education USA, walk through the process with them, communicate with us, your outreach people, because we have some ideas on maybe ways to improve your chances. Now, there's no guarantees, of course, but I've heard some students try two, three, even four times, and then eventually they get it. So, you know, don't despair, that would be my thing. And then when you get here, you know, if a class is full, don't despair. Talk to your advisors, talk to other students, talk I mean, I can't help you. I'm worthless. But these guys know more than I do. They were students here, but yeah, I mean, there's always someone around that can help out, right? Be persistent.
Johan François 54:03
Yeah, be persistent. That's a great advice. And the other one is, you know, do not hesitate to ask for help.
Evan Franulovich 54:10
Please.
Johan François 54:12
When you come to the US, you know, you have to be more vocal about what you need, especially if you need help. So if we don't know that you need help, we can't help you, right? So the first step is for you to, you know, talk to someone. It could be another student, it could be the front desk person. It could be a teacher. It could be an advisor or a tutor. You know, it doesn't really matter, but reach out to someone, someone that you like or that you have a good rapport with, and you know, share what's going on, you know, let them know that you're having maybe problems, or you know that you need help. And you'll see they, you know, usually a lot of people want to help you.
Evan Franulovich 54:55
Sure.
Johan François 54:55
And they'll, you know, they may not be able to solve the problem for you, but they at least, will point you in the right direction. They'll connect you with other people who can help you more directly. And that's really the key. So don't be quiet. You know, don't stay in your room. Yeah, saying nothing. Come talk to someone. Ask for help. There's no shame in asking for help. You know, that's part of the process.
Evan Franulovich 55:21
And it doesn't have to be a crisis either. You can ask for very mundane things, like, hey, I'm looking for a ride to go up to the mountain to go snowboarding. That's okay. Ask those kind of questions.
Johan François 55:30
Yeah, hey, I want to make more friends, you know. Do you know how can I join some clubs? Or you know, get connected with other students?
Evan Franulovich 55:38
We're pretty connected.
Johan François 55:39
Yes.
Evan Franulovich 55:40
We can hook them up, right?
Gina Nakamura 55:41
Sure, of course.
Johan François 55:42
Sure, of course.
Gina Nakamura 55:43
But the more you talk, the more you're going to make connections and relationship and friendships. And my teachers, I'm still friends with some of my teachers from community college when I came here, because I went and saw them in their office hours. I talked, I made connection. Guess who wrote me those letters or recommendations, right? So the more people you talk to, the more friends you're gonna make, the more connections, the more potential job opportunities. That's also how I got the job I got on campus, is because somebody I talked to somebody, and that person talked to someone else for me. So the more people you can talk to, make connections with, the more opportunities you're gonna have. That's how I got my first boyfriend. I got my first boyfriend at South Seattle College. You know, the more people you meet, the more friends you make, the more possibilities you're going to have for opportunities, for things in the future.
Johan François 56:31
Gina, I don't think you need any help finding a boyfriend.
Evan Franulovich 56:35
Well, I can't say that I got a boyfriend or girlfriend, but I did get a great education, and one of the great reasons to come to a community college, because you just talked about jobs again, and I was like, after you graduate from here, you can do a year of OPT before you go do your junior and senior year. I don't think that gets talked about nearly enough.
Johan François 56:52
Yes, you can double up on your work experience.
Evan Franulovich 56:55
It's amazing.
Johan François 56:55
So amazing, yeah. Great way to reduce your cost of your education too.
Evan Franulovich 57:00
True that. Yeah, because you get paid.
Johan François 57:02
Yeah, you get paid.
Gina Nakamura 57:03
Or come work for us and then never leave like we did.
Johan François 57:06
You never know what can happen.
Evan Franulovich 57:07
You never know.
Johan François 57:08
You never know.
Evan Franulovich 57:09
Wow. 100th episode. Thanks for helping me celebrate today. Thank you for coming and listening to us. We hope you'll continue to join us. Don't forget to like and subscribe. We want to get to 100,000 before the school year ends. We're not that far away. I think we can do it.
Johan François 57:25
We can do it.
Evan Franulovich 57:26
Easy peasy for sure.
Johan François 57:27
In our sleep!
Evan Franulovich 57:29
So share with everybody you know guys and listen in every Wednesday. And if you want to be on the show and you're here, or if you're a future student, like, oh, I want to be there, I want to go, I want to be a guest. Give me a call or hunt me down.
Johan François 57:44
Comment.
Evan Franulovich 57:44
Comment
Johan François 57:45
On the video.
Evan Franulovich 57:46
Right.
Johan François 57:47
You watch these. You respond.
Evan Franulovich 57:48
I look at the comments.
Johan François 57:49
We read everything guys.
Evan Franulovich 57:53
Okay, great. Thanks, guys, have a great day. Happy holidays.
Johan François 57:58
Yeah.
Evan Franulovich 58:00
'Conversations with' is painstakingly crafted for you by the Seattle Colleges International Programs department and supported by the lovely folks here on our campus. This show is produced and edited by me Evan Franulovich. We welcome your emails and questions about coming to Seattle Colleges. Please reach out to us via our website or just give us a rating and a review on Apple podcasts as this helps others discover the show. Also, don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube at Seattle Colleges Intl, that's Seattle Colleges Intl. And be sure to check out all of the shows here on 'Conversations with!' Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.