S3E23: Seattle Colleges Conversations with! International Programs Advisor Caitlin Karwand

In this our twenty-third episode (23rd) of Season 3, Seattle Colleges host Evan Franulovich interviews International Programs Advisor Caitlin Karwand about her role helping students succeed here at Seattle Colleges.

Copyright © Seattle Colleges International Programs 2023. All rights reserved. For more information about being an international student at Seattle Colleges, please visit intl.seattlecolleges.edu

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Transcript

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  1:07  
Hey everybody! Welcome back to Seattle Colleges 'Conversations with!' We're here at Seattle Central College at our central location, and it's been a long time, so I'm super happy that Caitlin's agreed to come on the show. She is a...? 

Caitlin Karwand  1:23  
International Student Advisor. 

Evan Franulovich  1:24  
I would argue, one of the most important people in your life when you get here. 

Caitlin Karwand  1:33  
Yeah, yeah. We're one of your best resources when you get here. 

Evan Franulovich  1:40  
Right. Yeah, you talk to us, the recruiters, you know, when you're thinking about coming, and then, you know, you talk to admissions when you're in the process of applying, but then once you're here...

Caitlin Karwand  1:54  
You're all ours. 

Evan Franulovich  1:55  
How many advisors are there total these days?

Caitlin Karwand  1:59  
At all campuses 5. At central we have two full-time, and two part-time.

Evan Franulovich  2:07  
Cool. And you're one of the full timers?

Caitlin Karwand  2:08  
Yes. 

Evan Franulovich  2:09  
Awesome. Yeah, and so marketing and advising kind of back to back here, we talk a lot and help each other out. They help me more a lot, because I'm just ridiculous. You guys are super helpful. Lot of great information here, so please stick around and listen to all of it. 

Caitlin Karwand  2:25  
Yeah, go out to share.

Evan Franulovich  2:27  
Go out to share. So, let's tell everybody where you're from originally? 

Caitlin Karwand  2:31  
Yeah, so I'm originally from Minnesota. Really, really small town, just north of the Twin Cities, kind of right on the Wisconsin border. 

Evan Franulovich  2:39  
On a lake? 

Caitlin Karwand  2:40  
On a lake. The land of 10,000 lakes. Yeah, where I'm from it's very lake country. 

Evan Franulovich  2:53  
Yeah. 

Caitlin Karwand  2:53  
I would say it's a bunch of small towns, tons of lakes, tons of country, very kind of classic Midwest. 

Evan Franulovich  3:02  
Right. Did you canoe a lot? 

Caitlin Karwand  3:03  
More kayak.

Evan Franulovich  3:05  
More kayak? 

Caitlin Karwand  3:05  
More kayak, yeah. Canoeing is harder I think, because you have to do it with someone. So unless you are able to, like, work with them consistently, and otherwise, you start going in circles. 

Evan Franulovich  3:22  
True. 

Caitlin Karwand  3:23  
We would like do kayak and canoe trips down the rivers and stuff, because we have a big river that leads into the Mississippi. 

Evan Franulovich  3:29  
Oh, okay. So, did you grow up around a lot of international students? 

Caitlin Karwand  3:37  
No. 

Evan Franulovich  3:37  
No? 

Caitlin Karwand  3:38  
No. 

Evan Franulovich  3:39  
No exchange students? 

Caitlin Karwand  3:41  
So we had a few exchange students. I actually had an exchange student live with us my senior year, I convinced my...  

Evan Franulovich  3:45  
That's cool!

Caitlin Karwand  3:41  
Yeah, it was really fun. I'm the youngest, so my two siblings had already gone off to school, and I had spent one year alone with my parents, and I was like, 'No, there's too much attention. I need someone else in this house with me.' And I had always kind of loved the idea of having someone from a different country come and stay. So we had a boy, his name was James, he's from New Zealand. 

Evan Franulovich  4:15  
Shout out to James. 

Caitlin Karwand  4:16  
Shout out to James. He came and lived with us my senior year, and that was kind of the start of the International student journey. 

Evan Franulovich  4:25  
Journey, yeah. So did you think about becoming an exchange student right after that?

Caitlin Karwand  4:35  
I knew I wanted to study abroad in college. I was a senior when he came, it's a little too late for me to do it as a high school student, and I don't know my parents really would have been for that. They let me do some travel, my first like big international trip without my parents was when I was 15. I did one of those education summer programs in Italy and Greece. 

Evan Franulovich  5:01  
What? That's awesome.

Caitlin Karwand  5:03  
Yeah, that was the start, the very, very start. Uh, at 15 years old. 

Evan Franulovich  5:11  
Was it the big cities, Rome, Athens? 

Caitlin Karwand  5:14  
Yes, Rome, Athens. I cannot remember the port that we docked at. But we did a couple smaller coastal towns in Greece, which is really fun and makes me really mad that I can't remember the names. 

Evan Franulovich  5:32  
You say dock, so you're on a boat this whole time? 

Caitlin Karwand  5:35  
No. We flew into Italy. We went mostly around Rome. We went to Florence as well, and then we took a ferry from Italy to Greece. Yeah, just one of those overnight ones. 

Evan Franulovich  5:52  
That's cool. And was it a good experience? I mean, did you have calm seas? 

Caitlin Karwand  5:57  
Yeah, I mean, it was really calm. It was a very different experience than what I was used to. Never had been on a like overnight ferry or anything like that. So I'd say it kind of felt a little bit like a cruise ship, like a dated cruise ship. It was big, there were places you could gather and hang out, It was a huge boat. But I spent most of it in my room, since it was overnight, yeah, exhausted, jet lagged. And then, yeah, and then we got to Greece, and I absolutely loved it. Had a ton of fun. And from that point on, was like, all right, I want to travel, I want to do this more, this was really fun. I'm going to go again in college. And we did. We went in college, and then for a semester, and then after college, we went off again. 

Evan Franulovich  6:48  
Right. So let's talk about your college experience. You did not start at a community college. Is that correct? 

Caitlin Karwand  6:48  
Correct. I started and stayed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

Evan Franulovich  6:58  
Big school? 

Caitlin Karwand  7:02  
Big school, about 40,000. 

Evan Franulovich  7:03  
Yeah. 

Caitlin Karwand  7:04  
Yeah. Really big school, really fun school. It was an alma mater for most of my family. My sister went there. My parents met there. Cousin was there, aunt there. 

Evan Franulovich  7:18  
You're from Minnesota, so why not the University of Minnesota versus University of Wisconsin? 

Caitlin Karwand  7:23  
I'm a little biased. I think University of Wisconsin's a lot better than University of Minnesota, or we call it the UofM, or Wisconsin, we call it UDub or UW. So coming here was really confusing, having everyone call University of Washington, UDub. I was like, wait, we're not talking about the same place, okay. I wasn't a huge fan of the UofM campus because, one, I wanted to be a little bit further away from home, I wanted to branch out a little bit more, and I didn't like the feel of the UofM campus as much it didn't mix too well with what I was wanting. It was, it's very urban, very city, and I wanted a campus that felt a little bit more campus esque, which Madison kind of gave me the best of both. You knew when you were on campus, very centralized, but it was still in a city, so you could just walk off and be in the city same time. 

Evan Franulovich  8:26  
Little fact Earth Day from University of Wisconsin. Am I right? Started at University of Wisconsin? 

Caitlin Karwand  8:33  
I have no idea.

Evan Franulovich  8:34  
I think so. 

Caitlin Karwand  8:35  
I wouldn't be shocked, I wouldn't be shocked. They're very big on their environmental sciences and stuff there. 

Evan Franulovich  8:41  
Cool. And then you took time between your undergrad and your grad work. 

Caitlin Karwand  8:47  
Yeah. So once I graduated, I graduated with a degree in history and classics. And I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. We were kind of going back and forth, working, kind of studying abroad, international services was always kind of an idea. But I knew I wanted to travel more. I knew I wasn't ready to just settle into a career, so I decided to teach abroad in Thailand. 

Evan Franulovich  9:15  
Oh, yeah. 

Caitlin Karwand  9:16  
I was there for about three years. Started in the north in a city called Korat. It is very, very big. It's, believe it's the second or third largest city, huge, and it's in the Northeast. It's called in a province called Nakhon Ratchasima, which borders Cambodia. 

Evan Franulovich  9:38  
Oh, okay. So it's still fairly south. I was thinking Laos. 

Caitlin Karwand  9:43  
It is kind of like...because Thailand has, like the chunk, and then the peninsula comes down, like this part of the chunk. It's very, very big province, and it's all like, jungle. It's beautiful for hiking. I only stayed there for about one semester of the school. I taught at a high school, a secondary school of all boys. 

Evan Franulovich  10:07  
Oh. 

Caitlin Karwand  10:08  
Yeah, yeah. For a 22 year old at the time. It was a shock, It was a shock. We had some real severe culture shock happen, for sure. 

Evan Franulovich  10:20  
Okay.

Caitlin Karwand  10:22  
And the city was just a little bit too big for me, I think. So I went with an agency, I guess you could kind of call them, and I quit the agency after that, and I had a couple friends who were also in the agency, who had quit, but they liked where they were, so they were in the south. And so I moved down south to Nakhon Si Thammarat, and that's where I stayed. 

Evan Franulovich  10:52  
Cool. Well, Thailand, very different than Minnesota. Oh my gosh. 

Caitlin Karwand  10:55  
Yeah, yeah. A lot hotter. Weirdly not terribly more humid. Minnesota, crazy enough does get really hot and humid in the summertime. Can be up upper 90s consistently, and air thick enough you can swim. 

Evan Franulovich  11:16  
So maybe not too different than Thailand.

Caitlin Karwand  11:19  
Yeah, it felt like mid July, every single day.

Evan Franulovich  11:23  
Cool. 

Caitlin Karwand  11:24  
Yeah. I mean, the food, the culture, the way of life, so different, but so amazing. I miss it every day. 

Evan Franulovich  11:33  
Really, okay? But you ended up going to Greece, yeah? 

Caitlin Karwand  11:37  
Yeah, yeah. I decided to go back to grad school. So I left Thailand, came back to the US for a little bit, see family, and then a couple months after that, we moved to Athens, Greece, and I got my masters in archeology. 

Evan Franulovich  11:55  
Nice. 

Caitlin Karwand  11:55  
Mm, hmm, yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  11:57  
Wow. So with the thought of ever becoming an architect, or was it more? 

Caitlin Karwand  12:02  
Well, my goal was, so I have always...

Evan Franulovich  12:06  
Oh, sorry, archeologist.

Caitlin Karwand  12:09  
An architect of the past. 

Evan Franulovich  12:11  
Archeologists, sorry, not architect. 

Caitlin Karwand  12:14  
I had the desire to go on to my PhD, the same program. And then become a professor and do research and kind of work on preservation. My area of specialty is iconography. So I study imagery, and I tell you what it means. I tell you how it reflects culture. Tell you what kind of stories it's supposed to be telling you.

Evan Franulovich  12:37  
All right. When I was in Crete, I saw a lot of that kind of stuff in the museums, especially on the pottery. Should have taken you with me. 

Caitlin Karwand  12:50  
Should take pictures, I would've told you the stories.

Evan Franulovich  12:51  
I probably have pictures on here. Well, that's really cool, interesting pathway. So something for you guys to think about. 

Caitlin Karwand  12:59  
Yeah, that's one thing I always say is, your education doesn't need to be limited to one place or even two places. You can go anywhere you want, even as an international student in the US, you can still study abroad. You can still go for a semester or a quarter to another school, and I highly encourage it.

Evan Franulovich  13:20  
Yeah, yeah.

Caitlin Karwand  13:21  
Not something that is describable unless you kind of done it. It's indescribable the feelings and memories and lessons it teaches you, and you come back a very different person than when you left in the best way possible. 

Evan Franulovich  13:37  
I agree. Well, one of the countries we didn't mention there on your bio, was studying in Ireland for a short time too. 

Caitlin Karwand  13:44  
Yeah, yeah, that was my study abroad in college. 

Evan Franulovich  13:47  
That was your study abroad, okay.

Caitlin Karwand  13:48  
Okay, yeah, I studied at the University of Ireland Galway. So Galway is a small city, large town on the western side of Ireland. 

Evan Franulovich  14:03  
Okay. 

Caitlin Karwand  14:04  
And I chose Galway over Dublin because Galway is more focused on Irish cultures. It's really strong there. All the signs are in Irish, not Gaelic Irish. It's different. 

Evan Franulovich  14:18  
I did not know the difference. 

Caitlin Karwand  14:20  
Yeah, Irish people will get mad if you say their Irish is Gaelic. 

Evan Franulovich  14:23  
I didn't know that. Interesting. 

Caitlin Karwand  14:26  
Yeah, and I absolutely loved Galway. It's right on the sea, it's very kind of port esque, and it's still on it's medieval footprint. So you are walking down these cobbled streets, it feels very Irish, very European, very different from the US and the best in the best way. And yeah, so I did that for one semester, absolutely loved it, It's really fun. 

Evan Franulovich  14:51  
Was it hard to... you know, when I was in London, I asked somebody a question and didn't understand a word they said, I just walked away and tried to figure it out on my own. Did you have that same problem in Ireland? I can imagine this. Accents are strong. 

Caitlin Karwand  15:04  
Yeah, yeah. At first it was a little difficult. The Irish people are really nice, actually. They are really friendly, really nice. I never had an issue with meeting someone and asking them to repeat themselves or saying, 'I'm so sorry, I do not understand.' And my favorite thing is they're really nice, but then they'll tease you and they'll make fun of you for it. So, you kind of feel kind of welcome there when they start making fun of you. But, honestly, I never had too big of an issue with Irish accent. Um, with Irish accent, they speak very clearly, um, and it's not terribly different their cadence and the way they speak. It wasn't terribly different from where I grew up. 

Evan Franulovich  15:55  
Oh, that's great. 

Caitlin Karwand  15:55  
So it was pretty easy to get there. Yeah, and I mean, the first thing I did there was go to immigration, and the immigration officer looked at me when I said, Minnesota, and went, 'Haha, Vikings.' We're welcomed here. 

Evan Franulovich  16:11  
That's great, just such a great international background. She's been to, what, 20 countries, something like that. It's just a lot of international background. But we're really here to talk to you about advising, because we want to help you guys understand how to use them in the most efficient way possible, because their time is precious. There's a lot of people that want to talk to you guys. I guess some of the first questions I have is like, what's the difference between the front desk staff, who are kind of the first people they meet, and what you guys do. When should they just really focus on talking to the front desk people, and when should they really focus on talking to you? 

Caitlin Karwand  16:55  
That's a very good question. So the biggest difference, I would say, is anything immigration related, you need to speak with the advisor. Our front desk staff are not DSOs. Our front desk manager is, but they are not trained in the same way, they do not have the same information or access to information that we have. 

Evan Franulovich  17:14  
Gotcha.

Caitlin Karwand  17:16  
So if you have any questions on anything immigration, even if it's really small. 

Evan Franulovich  17:21  
It's visa, I-20. 

Caitlin Karwand  17:22  
Yeah, traveling. 

Evan Franulovich  17:24  
Traveling. 

Caitlin Karwand  17:25  
Anything, transfer, anything that we would have to talk about your immigration record. Come see us. 

Evan Franulovich  17:33  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  17:35  
Drop in appointment, talk, at least communicate with an advisor. 

Evan Franulovich  17:39  
Right. For the listeners that may not be here yet they may not know what a DSO is. Can you explain that? 

Caitlin Karwand  17:46  
Yeah, so DSO, it stands for designated school official, and we are the people that are basically your immigration advisors. We are the ones that are in charge of anything to do with your immigration records documents. We are the ones to talk to. 

Evan Franulovich  18:03  
I agree, don't talk to your recruiter. I get visa questions all the time, and I usually have to go ask them. So, the DSOs have to take a test? You train for it? 

Caitlin Karwand  18:15  
We have training, special training that you have to get certified. You are put onto very specific documents with the government. So if you're not a DSO, you are not a DSO.

Evan Franulovich  18:30  
Don't talk to those front desk people, because they're not qualified. 

Caitlin Karwand  18:32  
No, they are great for, you know, just basic like academic questions, campus questions, student life questions. 

Evan Franulovich  18:44  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  18:44  
You know, our front desk staff are student workers. So they are fellow students, and most of them are international students as well. So they are great source to talk to if you have questions just about life here, about just things on campus, you know, some class ideas even.

Evan Franulovich  19:03  
Sure.

Caitlin Karwand  19:05  
And also very minimal, like they're there to hand you, like, if you need a form, if you need to turn something in, you can just talk to them. But I'd say anything kind of immigration aside, anything that's kind of below surface level. I would wait to talk to an advisor, anything that kind of needs, planning, anything like that. We talk to an advisor. 

Evan Franulovich  19:30  
So because they're students, though, at the front desk, you know, they've been through the process of registering for classes and picking professors and those kinds of things. How much would you recommend they talk to those guys about getting help with that? Or do you say no, no, really talk to your advisor. 

Caitlin Karwand  19:46  
I think if there's any form of academic planning, talk to the advisor. They're going to know more than our students do. The advisors here in the International Programs, they're a little bit special from other advisors other universities, because we also do all the academic planning, and we don't specialize in just one like department. So domestic advising, which, as international students don't ever go to domestic advising, they have advisors who specialize in certain departments. We specialize in all of them. 

Evan Franulovich  20:23  
Gotcha. 

Caitlin Karwand  20:24  
So we have the ends of each program how you should plan for what you need to think about, and planning for their future. Where our students at the front, they're great if you just have a general question about a class, or if you need help physically registering, like if you don't understand Ctclink, or how to register for a self paced class, they are great for that source, because we have computers up front, and they can help walk you through that. 

Evan Franulovich  20:55  
Right. It seems like a lot of our new students, the ones that are just arriving, they're having the most problems or difficulties with that piece of it. 

Caitlin Karwand  21:03  
Yeah, it's so when it's their first quarter, they've just come, just finished orientation and everything. They shouldn't have to be enrolling in classes. The advisors will do that. If it's your very first quarter and you've done everything you were asked to do. Because we will email you and say, 'Hey, fill out this form, fill out this form.' And as long as you do that, we get the information. And we can go ahead, we can enroll you for your first quarter. 

Evan Franulovich  21:31  
No matter what their program. 

Caitlin Karwand  21:33  
No matter their program. 

Evan Franulovich  21:34  
They could be a they could be a history major, or they could be a culinary science vocational technical students? 

Caitlin Karwand  21:41  
Yeah, so there are some programs that do require a separate application to get into, like graphic design, the visual media, culinary, the more career. Yeah, the career training programs require, usually an additional step in admissions.

Evan Franulovich  21:59  
Gotcha.

Caitlin Karwand  22:00  
And when you're in those very specialized programs, those programs actually start enrolling you, usually. 

Evan Franulovich  22:08  
Gotcha. 

Caitlin Karwand  22:09  
But you have to get into them first. 

Evan Franulovich  22:11  
So they apply to Seattle Colleges, they get accepted to Seattle Colleges, they start a conversation with you guys before they even arrive? 

Caitlin Karwand  22:20  
Yeah. I'd say if they're really interested in one of our career training programs, they should definitely start reaching out and asking us about what are the steps I need to take so that they when they get here, we can kind of have them ready and they have the correct information so they don't end up wasting a lot of quarters. 

Evan Franulovich  22:40  
Sure. I work here, and I get confused. So there's a little bit of overlap here, because with recruiters, outreach and marketing, you know, they usually come to us and they're asking us about career programs, and we're like trying to walk them through that kind of stuff. But then there's kind of a handoff area, kind of a gray area, which kind of seems like, morally your territory, or the actual program itself.

Caitlin Karwand  23:04  
Yeah, I would say, you know, when you have potential students interested in here, and they express interest in certain programs that we already know require an additional kind of admittance. I would say that would be the time to either reach out to us so that we can guide them to the correct resource, or say, graphic design, for example, there is an advisor who specializes in that. That is what he does. He's kind of the program coordinator, I believe. I would reach out to him probably, and say, 'Hey, I have a student's interested. What are the steps?' Or I would put student in contact with him, because they have to upload, like, a lot of extra documents.

Evan Franulovich  23:55  
Sure.

Caitlin Karwand  23:56  
So that would be kind of that step. As advisors, we usually have the rule of thumb is, first day of the quarter, that's when our job starts, kind of thing with students. 

Evan Franulovich  24:09  
Okay. 

Caitlin Karwand  24:09  
But for the very new students, we help them with their first quarter of enrollment. But then we're also there for questions about that first quarter too. 

Evan Franulovich  24:20  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  24:20  
Because sometimes we have students who come in who are prerequisite study, who are... 

Evan Franulovich  24:26  
Nursing, for example. 

Caitlin Karwand  24:28  
Yeah, pre-nursing, pre-engineering, or they're prepping for a master's program. And we don't really know what they need to take because they're not in a set program. And we reach out. We say, 'Hey, I see you enrolling, please let me know what classes you need, I'll help you get enrolled, or I'll give you the steps.' And we try to get those out as soon as we get our list of who's going to be a new student. And we do ask that you respond. 

Evan Franulovich  24:57  
Please check your email.

Caitlin Karwand  24:58  
Please respond. Please check your email. 

Evan Franulovich  25:01  
Super important, actually. 

Caitlin Karwand  25:03  
That is actually really important. I will have a comment on that later. Yeah, emails are really, really important. It's how we communicate with you from the start, from the application process. So whatever email you're using, you need to make sure that it's one that you have access to, that you see consistently. When you often use third party emails. 

Evan Franulovich  25:30  
Like an agent or a parent or, something like that. 

Caitlin Karwand  25:33  
Yeah, just one that you don't necessarily have the access to, you're gonna miss a lot of really vital information. 

Evan Franulovich  25:40  
Yes. 

Caitlin Karwand  25:41  
So after you applied, once you get in, send us your email. The one that you use consistently, your personal email, so that you get the information, not anybody else. 

Evan Franulovich  25:57  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  25:59  
Yeah, we don't call, we don't run to you in person If we see you in the hallway. 

Evan Franulovich  26:05  
Right, right. 

Caitlin Karwand  26:06  
We email. 

Evan Franulovich  26:07  
They're not gonna send you a whatsapp or a WeChat or anything like that. So, yeah, email, email, email. Yeah, that seems to be a real challenge for us too. Sometimes they don't respond to email, and gotta get creative, I guess. You guys, though, work just with the email. So be checking it. You were saying that, you may not know. Would that be like an IP short term certificate? Are those kinds of things that? 

Caitlin Karwand  26:40  
Yeah, yeah. So some of the programs, prerequisite, for example, IP short term certificates. And then even sometimes, if they say they're coming in for another program, and they can't start it right away, we might ask, all right, what do you want to take in the meantime? 

Evan Franulovich  27:04  
Okay. 

Caitlin Karwand  27:05  
And usually, most programs are all going to require English 101. 

Evan Franulovich  27:10  
For sure. 

Caitlin Karwand  27:11  
We require ISD 200 that's our orientation class. So I will almost always enroll students in those two classes first and then the third is kind of their choice. Either they've put it on the form provided so I can just go ahead and enroll them, or I'll reach out and say, 'Hey, what do you want to take for your third class?' Let me know as soon as possible, because classes fill really quickly. That is the big thing. If you check your email and you see an email from us, respond quickly. 

Evan Franulovich  27:43  
Yes. 

Caitlin Karwand  27:43  
Because we cannot guarantee those classes will still be open. 

Evan Franulovich  27:46  
For sure, I've talked to many, I don't do what you do, but what I do do is walk through the IP lobby pretty regularly, and students grab me because they know me. And you know, some of them are in a panic because it's like, oh, I can't get into the class I want or whatever. How can they avoid that? Like, what's the secret for a lot of these students? 

Caitlin Karwand  28:08  
Being proactive. 

Evan Franulovich  28:09  
Being proactive.

Caitlin Karwand  28:11  
So the biggest thing is, you know, education is students responsibility, right? That is, your job as a student, it's your job. So as jobs are, you know, you need to be aware of all the responsibilities of that job, and one of those responsibilities is knowing when dates are. And it's very easy to find we have an academic calendar. It's on the website, they update it pretty well. And also, you know you can always send us an email each quarter be like, hey, when does enrollment open? And we'll gladly let you know. That's something you can ask the front desk right. 

Evan Franulovich  28:48  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  28:49  
And then when enrollment opens for spring quarter, it's February 18. But when it opens, you can go ahead and enroll, and on a student's Ctclink, they should have a date of when they can start their enrollment put into their Ctclink. 

Evan Franulovich  29:08  
Gotcha. 

Caitlin Karwand  29:08  
So to avoid, you know, not being able to get into classes, to avoid being stuck with classes you don't want or need. Enroll as soon as you can, once you get that date. 

Evan Franulovich  29:21  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  29:21  
The sooner, the better. Classes fill up really fast. And we as advisors, we're not miracle workers. 

Evan Franulovich  29:29  
Right, exactly. 

Caitlin Karwand  29:30  
We will help you as much as we can of trying to find another class, an alternative, getting you to contact with the professor. But we can't put you in something that's closed or fall, no matter how much we might want to help you do that, that is not in our power. So, the best advice I can give is, you know, being aware of dates, checking the academic calendar, and just being proactive, not putting it off because it's not going to be there if you keep putting it off. 

Evan Franulovich  29:59  
Right. One thing I've talked to advisors about in the past is this whole concept of self advocacy, about taking care of yourself. And this may be kind of a cultural thing to the United States. When you come to college, it's your job, like you said. So if you're not used to that approach, there may be some adjustment for you. 

Caitlin Karwand  30:18  
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, we get that we 100% understand that it is a whole new ball game that our students are in. They are not only here often starting college. 

Evan Franulovich  30:34  
Right, which is hard enough. 

Caitlin Karwand  30:35  
Which is hard enough. But they're also in a whole new country. They're going through some, maybe some culture shock, or maybe they're alone. They left their family for the first time. We get that. 

Evan Franulovich  30:47  
Yeah, yeah. Second language. 

Caitlin Karwand  30:49  
Second language. And you know almost all the advisors, we have a couple who were international students here when they were in college, and we have others who are international students in other countries. So we can relate to that feeling, at least to a point. And as we say in advising everything, what we really try to push forward is that we are humans who are there to help you. We are not your parents or your boss or anything like that. We're not scary, we promise we're not scary. Our job is to help, and it's to support. It's not to lead, it's not to tell you what to do. It's there to help you achieve what you want. And we are a place that you know, our titles say academic and immigration, but we really encourage students, if they're struggling with anything personal as well to come and talk to us. We have resources, we're there to listen. There's no judgment in our office, and everything you tell us is confidential. So if you ever need help with anything, have any questions whatsoever. We really encourage you to come talk to us. 

Evan Franulovich  32:00  
Right, right. 

Caitlin Karwand  32:01  
We want to help you. We are there to help you. And one of the biggest things I can say, too, is a lot of students when they get here, you know, they make connections, they make friends. And a lot of times they make friends with international students who have already been here, and they'll hear things and one of my biggest pieces of advice is, don't listen to your friends. Don't listen to them.

Evan Franulovich  32:28  
I think that's really good advice. 

Caitlin Karwand  32:29  
Yes, yes. Your friends have the best intentions. They do want to help you, but they often have a misunderstanding, or there's misinterpretation or policies and laws may have changed since the last time they spoke to an advisor. And also, situations are different. Your situation is not going to be the exact same as your friend. 

Evan Franulovich  32:53  
For sure. 

Caitlin Karwand  32:54  
So if you ever need help with truly anything, we are there to help you, and we really encourage you to come by and talk to us. 

Evan Franulovich  33:05  
Right. That's really, really great information, really good. Be your own person, do your own thing, do your own research, make your own decisions, and then reach out for help. I mean, it's always nice to have friends, for sure. 

Caitlin Karwand  33:18  
It's very nice to friends, but yeah, anytime you have questions academic, immigration wise, or just life, I love when students come in and want to talk about life, and Seattle and what you are doing. I think those are some of my favorite conversations. 

Evan Franulovich  33:33  
Right, right. But what I do know is that, the first week or two of class, usually our lobby is pretty full. We have a lot of students that are in there, and they're all waiting, and sometimes they're like, 'Hey, I you know, I really need to see an advisor.' And you guys are just slammed. What kind of advice can we give students to say, hey, look, if you don't want to be sitting there as a part of that group that first couple weeks, you know, they can do what you just said where they're registering as soon as possible. What other things can they do to ensure that they're not one of those people that are kind of stuck in there? Yeah, so when we're in that first couple weeks where we have a ton of students coming in saying, I need help with enrollment, I'm not enrolled. First off, is just trying to be proactive, trying to be fully enrolled, and then also communicating with us like email. We are very responsive to email. I personally hate having a ton of emails in my inbox, so I am constantly answering my emails. But yeah, I would say the biggest advice I can have is, yeah, be proactive. If you need help with enrolling in classes, go ahead and look at what's available, see what's available. And then if you do want to come in, that makes our appointment that much shorter. 

Evan Franulovich  34:52  
Yes.

Caitlin Karwand  34:53  
Because we as advisors, are not sitting with you going through every single class. If you come in with a kind of with an idea, you know what's available, we can help you much quicker. That could be a drop in, really quick drop in. Or you can even email us and say, 'Hey, I really want to be in these classes, they are still open.' And we'll say, 'All right, great. You can enroll yourself, or if it's needs a permission number or something, we give you the guide.' 

Evan Franulovich  35:22  
Right, right. 

Caitlin Karwand  35:23  
But I would say, if you want to avoid being in there, answer the emails we send you, be checking your emails. We do send them quarterly, and just be proactive. 

Evan Franulovich  35:37  
Okay, so let's say I just missed the boat. And I'm a central student, for example, and I just can't get into the class I want. What are my options? Can I go to one of the other campuses to take that class? 

Caitlin Karwand  35:52  
Yep, yeah. You can absolutely take classes at other campuses. We call those interdistrict. Yeah, usually what we'll do is come talk to an advisor first, if that's your goal, because we do need to set you up to be able to take classes there, we have to. It's called activate your record. 

Evan Franulovich  36:14  
Okay. 

Caitlin Karwand  36:16  
Because they are still separate campuses, they are technically separate schools, so you are not a student at North, if you've enrolled at Central. 

Evan Franulovich  36:25  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  36:26  
So we need to do some background technical things to make sure that you are now a student at North as well. But, yeah, that is very much encouraged if, especially if it's a class that you really need. We would encourage that as an option for you at North or South. We also would encourage possibly looking at a different if there's another section available, we say, all right, maybe we put you in this section. Maybe alter your other classes, if have to. There's always a self paced if you are willing to do that. If you are, I would say very self efficient person. If you are prone to procrastination, it's not the best class to have, because there is no one holding you accountable. 

Evan Franulovich  37:15  
Sure, sure. It's self paced. That probably doesn't count towards your in person credits. 

Caitlin Karwand  37:21  
No, that counts just like basically the same as online. 

Evan Franulovich  37:24  
Gotcha. 

Caitlin Karwand  37:25  
Um, so that's I don't normally push for self paced unless there's no other options, or I have a student that is like, that is just their best way to learn for themselves. That's how they like to learn. 

Evan Franulovich  37:38  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  37:39  
Then I'll definitely encourage they go for that. And then I also always encourage reaching out to the instructors and talking to the instructors, get yourself on the wait list. 

Evan Franulovich  37:50  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  37:50  
If you're you know, in the first, second, third position on the wait list, there's a good chance you get in. And if you don't get in by the first week, I always encourage to reach out to the instructor. It's a lot will say that's okay. And it never hurts to ask. 

Evan Franulovich  38:09  
Right. They start getting stressed because they're like, 'Oh, hey, I don't want to lose my status with my visa, or my I-20, or whatever.' So they start to be at a little panicky.

Caitlin Karwand  38:21  
Yeah, I'd say we see a pattern. When that does start to happen, when the panic starts to come in, we see a pattern of students shutting down then and not actually coming and talking to us. 

Evan Franulovich  38:32  
Don't do that. 

Caitlin Karwand  38:33  
Don't do that. 

Evan Franulovich  38:34  
Bad idea. 

Caitlin Karwand  38:34  
I understand sometimes when you're really stressed and you're really anxious, the last thing you want to do is confront what is making you anxious. You kind of want to hide away from it, you don't want to think about it. But when that starts to happen, that is when you need to come see that when you start get really stressed about your classes. We are here to help ease that. We want to make sure you're okay, that you've got it, and that you're not alone in that. 

Evan Franulovich  39:02  
For sure. So okay, a student knows that they need to talk to you, this is going to be a real basic question, but people need to know this. How do they make an appointment to see you? 

Caitlin Karwand  39:12  
Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. A lot of lot of students don't know. So we have two types of appointments. We have drop ins. Drop-ins, you would see any advisor who was ever running it at that time. Drop-ins are for questions, you know, take 10ish minutes to answer, simple. 

Evan Franulovich  39:29  
Like, 'I just need a signature so I can go to Canada this weekend.' 

Caitlin Karwand  39:32  
Yeah. Or, like 'I just, I have a question about one class.' Or, 'Hey, what is a transfer?' Or 'What is OPT?' Very basic questions that don't require the advisor to really go super in depth into your records.

Evan Franulovich  39:53  
Gotcha.

Caitlin Karwand  39:54  
You just come into the office for that. We have in person, and we have virtual, virtual the link is in our advisor handbook. That's on the website. We can also email your advisor, they can send it to you if you can't find it. 

Evan Franulovich  40:07  
Okay. 

Caitlin Karwand  40:08  
But in person is the most common that we do. We have them Monday through Thursdays, virtuals on Fridays. Our office is closed on Fridays, please don't come on Fridays. And so, yeah, it's basic, but for appointments. So, something that would take anywhere between a half hour to an hour length. We have what's called starfish. 

Evan Franulovich  40:32  
Yeah. 

Caitlin Karwand  40:32  
And when you get here, you are introduced to starfish, you are showed how to use it. And we all have our office hours on there, and you need to make sure you're booking the appointment with your advisor. 

Evan Franulovich  40:45  
Right. 

Caitlin Karwand  40:46  
If we get a request from a student that who's who is not our advisee, we will deny it. 

Evan Franulovich  40:52  
Okay. 

Caitlin Karwand  40:53  
Yeah, we only see our advisees because that's all we have time for. 

Evan Franulovich  40:57  
Right, right. 

Caitlin Karwand  40:58  
So that is just through starfish. You're taught when you get here how to access it. It's very user friendly, it's very easy to use. 

Evan Franulovich  41:08  
It's on the web. 

Caitlin Karwand  41:09  
It's on the web. If it is an emergency, sometimes our starfish appointments get booked out pretty far in advance, depending on the time of the quarter. But a lot of us advisors  understand that emergencies happen. Sometimes you really need to speak with us right away. Whether it's an academic emergency, an immigration emergency or a personal one. We will usually say, all right, I've got some time here, I will always say, send me your availability. And when I say that, I mean, send me the entire time you're free. Don't send me one time. 

Evan Franulovich  41:47  
Sure. 

Caitlin Karwand  41:47  
Send me at least, like five different times, so that I can look at my schedule and I can say I have an hour free at this time. Come on in, I'll talk to you. 

Evan Franulovich  41:57  
Right, right. Can they do that virtual advising before they even leave their home country? 

Caitlin Karwand  42:03  
Um, yeah. I mean, usually I'd say, you know, if they have very specific questions about a program, I'm not gonna turn them off from the drop-in advising or anything like that. If I have a student contacting me who would be my advisee, and they're just asking kind of general questions, I would actually direct them to the outreach people and team, because that's more your wheelhouse. 

Evan Franulovich  42:34  
Yeah. We can help you guys out with those kinds of things, and if we don't know the answer, we'll find out for you. 

Caitlin Karwand  42:40  
Yeah, but if you have, like, some immigration questions or something like that, like, absolutely contact us. We can help you with that. 

Evan Franulovich  42:47  
Cool. and what email would they send their questions to? Would they be the specific advisor? Or is there a more general email?

Caitlin Karwand  42:53  
Yeah, I would say start with the Intlcentral@seattlecolleges.edu. 

Evan Franulovich  43:01  
And if you're a North student, you'd be Intl north, Intl south. 

Caitlin Karwand  43:05  
Yep, that is our office email, and then those will be forwarded to the appropriate office once it's received. 

Evan Franulovich  43:13  
Cool. Well, I know we got to wrap this up really fast. Do you hear that? It's Trivia Time. So we have some questions we're gonna ask you. We could actually visit for like hours. There's so many things.. 

Caitlin Karwand  43:27  
That's true.

Evan Franulovich  43:28  
...I have on here to ask, but we'll maybe encourage one of your other advisors, come on the show, that we can continue asking these good so much great information. Question number one, if you get all these right, you'll be on the wall of fame. Now you have kind of an interesting background, so I have special questions for you. 

Caitlin Karwand  43:46  
Oh gosh, okay. 

Evan Franulovich  43:48  
Question number one: Crete was the center of Europe's most ancient civilization. What is the name of that civilization? 

Caitlin Karwand  43:56  
The Minoans.

Evan Franulovich  43:58  
I knew you would get that right. Nice job. Okay, this one's a little this one's a little tougher, but I know that in 2015 you worked as a tasting room assistant. So this one might go back to that.

Caitlin Karwand  44:10  
 Did you look at my you look my resume?

Evan Franulovich  44:13  
What do you call someone with expertise in the science and study of wine production? 

Caitlin Karwand  44:20  
A sommelier?

Evan Franulovich  44:21  
Well, not exactly.

Caitlin Karwand  44:25  
I know the tasting, I don't know production. 

Evan Franulovich  44:27  
Okay. It's Enologist. E-N-O-ologist.

Caitlin Karwand  44:32  
I never would have known that. 

Evan Franulovich  44:34  
I didn't know, so not too bad. 

Caitlin Karwand  44:35  
I specialized in tasting.

Evan Franulovich  44:38  
Sommelier is a good word. That's a good word. All right, number two or three, sorry. Number three: Who was Ireland's first president? That's a history question and an Ireland question. These are tough. Who was the first president? 

Caitlin Karwand  44:56  
I have no idea. 

Evan Franulovich  44:57  
Douglas Hyde, back in 1938 to 45. So yeah, there you go. 

Caitlin Karwand  45:04  
I'm gonna remember that for if I get trivia on that again. 

Evan Franulovich  45:07  
This one should be a little easier for you. My last name is Karwand. Who is my advisor?

Caitlin Karwand  45:13  
Me, no, sorry. Wait for like, who would be my advisor? 

Evan Franulovich  45:16  
Yeah, because your last name start with K. 

Caitlin Karwand  45:19  
Oh, it'd be Em Wright. 

Evan Franulovich  45:20  
Yes, congratulations! And last one, since you're so well traveled and you have a lot of international background, what's your favorite foreign film? 

Caitlin Karwand  45:30  
My favorite foreign film? Oh, my goodness, that's a great question. It is not a very well known film. It's from the 60s. 

Evan Franulovich  45:43  
Oh. 

Caitlin Karwand  45:44  
It is an Italian film, and it is based off of the Decameron. 

Evan Franulovich  45:50  
Oh, yeah, yeah. 

Caitlin Karwand  45:52  
And they took different stories from the Decameron and basically made them into scenes of the movie, and I think it's really funny. It's really entertaining to see, and that's one of my favorite books in history. So I love that movie. 

Evan Franulovich  46:07  
And the title? 

Caitlin Karwand  46:08  
It's called the Decameron. 

Evan Franulovich  46:09  
Oh, it's called the Decameron there you go. Check that out, guys. Tough question, sorry about that. 

Caitlin Karwand  46:14  
Yeah, wow.

Evan Franulovich  46:17  
I also learned that you were the executive assistant to a CEO at one time. That's kind of cool. 

Caitlin Karwand  46:22  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  46:22  
Interesting. How'd you like that? 

Caitlin Karwand  46:25  
It didn't last long.

Evan Franulovich  46:27  
Fair enough. But I don't know too many people have done that kind of work before. 

Caitlin Karwand  46:31  
Yeah, we tried a little bit of everything, a little bit of everything at some point. 

Evan Franulovich  46:35  
That's what we do, right? Well, so great to talk to you. Thanks so much for your time. 

Caitlin Karwand  46:40  
Yeah, thank you. 

Evan Franulovich  46:41  
I didn't ask her any questions about OPT, because soon I'll be in interviewing Shun, who's an OPT expert. So that's why I stayed away from this questions.

Caitlin Karwand  46:49  
He's the one to talk to.

Evan Franulovich  46:51  
Stay tuned for that episode, but otherwise, great information today. Thanks so much. 

Caitlin Karwand  46:51  
Yeah, thank you. 

Evan Franulovich  46:56  
And you guys come back every Wednesday for other episodes of 'Conversations with!' Weinterview faculty, staff, students, we'd love to have you. Don't forget to like and subscribe. Have a great week! Bye bye!

Evan Franulovich  47:12  
'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.