This episode features a story of change. Xiaoyu, an Applied Linguistics Master's student from the IOE, shares how she took the initiative to create her own unique university experience since she came to London in March 2020, in the middle of the UK's first lockdown. 

In addition to some common hurdles faced by international students, including socialising and adapting to living and working in a different culture, remote learning threatened to undermine the unique experience of attending different universities – with everything happening on Zoom. Yet Xiaoyu decided to step out and to grasp opportunities for socialising by participating in the Coffee Connect programme and volunteering at the IOE Confucius Institute for Schools. 

This episode was first published in May 2021. It is republished with the permission of the Superdiverse UCL podcast, a student-led series funded by UCL Grand Challenges. Find more episodes from the series on:

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/superdiverse-ucl