Written by Chris Zdravko
Arailym is from Kazakhstan and has received a scholarship from U of T. To her, U of T welcomes international students well. In fact, she was not planning to study in Canada, but then she found out about U of T’s status as one of the top schools in the world. She was initially afraid of the cultural differences between Canada and Kazakhstan. After spending time in Canada, she however came to realise that Canadians and Kazakhs share more similarities than she thought.
It has been challenging for her to write in English as it is her third language. While writing in English has not been easy, her friends and professors have really helped her improve. U of T is abundant in diversity, and Arailym believes that would be beneficial to any community. When she was staying on residence, Arailym got homesick, deciding to fly back home when she had the chance. The pandemic made her feel lonely and isolated, with the separation from her family exacerbating that. Moreover, online school came with its own challenges. She was doing her classes online from Kazakhstan by that point, and many of her tests and quizzes were in the middle of the night because of the time difference. Arailym is happy that she is finally able to return to in-person classes, but she also thinks there are several courses that should continue to be available online.