Practical tips you can use.
Workshops cover the real skills of studying, working, and living in the U.S. Most are one-on-one with your mentor. Some bring students and mentors into one room together.
Studying at an American school.
Note-taking that works, office hours that aren't scary, and how to email a professor without rewriting it ten times. American classrooms work differently from the ones you are used to.
Looking for a job here.
How to write a resume, what a job search here actually involves, and the expectations of the American workplace. You practice interviews as well, until the questions are no longer a surprise.
Building a life here.
Weekend plans, holidays, and the traditions that confuse everyone at first. These are the parts of living here that take the longest to learn.
One-on-one, and all together.
You can do a workshop with just your mentor, or with a group. In a group workshop you also meet the other students and the other mentors.
You and your mentor.
You and your mentor choose a topic and go through it together. Each topic has questions to talk about and things you can practice. In the Living in America workshop, you go out and practice together: you go to a restaurant, order from the menu, and your mentor explains the items you did not recognize.
You meet the other students, and the other mentors.
A mentor introduces the topic to everyone, and then the whole group works on it together, students and mentors at the same tables. You get a chance to try it yourself before you leave. Dinner is sometimes provided.
Pick what you need.
You and your mentor decide which topics to cover, and meet about once a week. If you have a different question, you can talk about that instead.
Academic Study Habits
Where to find the help your university already provides, how to get more from a lecture, and how to study so that you still remember it later.
English Training
Word stress, intonation, vowels and consonants, and slang. Why DEsert and desSERT are two different words.
Talking with Americans
How to answer small talk, how to start it yourself, and how to ask questions in a way that sounds natural.
Understanding Cultural Differences
Eastern and Western ways of understanding the same situation, with real case studies. We never say that one culture is right and another is wrong.
Time Management
Deciding what you will and will not do, instead of reacting to whatever arrives first. Getting the work done with less stress.
Healthy Living
Sleep, food, stress, and how you are doing emotionally. An honest look at where you are, then a few small changes.
Basics of Living in America
Ordering at In-N-Out, Chipotle, and Starbucks. How much to tip. Why the price on the label is not the price you pay. Who to call when you are sick, and how to make a doctor's appointment.
Career & the Job Search
Going through your resume together, practice interviews, and the STAR method for answering “tell me about a time when…”
Or the thing that isn't on this list
Some topics are not covered by a workshop, and you can still bring them up with your mentor.
Learn it with everyone else.
In a group workshop, everyone works on the same thing at the same time, and you get a chance to try it yourself before you leave.
Job Search Essentials & Common Mistakes to Avoid
How to build a resume, how to look for a job in the ways that actually work, what a recruiter notices in the first seven seconds, and how to prepare for the interview. You get a sample resume with mistakes hidden in it, and you find as many as you can.
Speaking Like Americans
Posture, eye contact, and whether your voice goes up or down at the end of a sentence. Then contractions: why “I'm” sounds native and “I am” does not. You practice a 30-second introduction about yourself and say it out loud before you leave.
Using AI for Job Search
Prompts that turn a job description into resume points with real numbers in them. How to find a real person's email address. Which AI job tools help, and which ones will quietly apply to jobs you don't want. At the end, you try them with the person sitting next to you.
It's not all studying.
Some of the best parts have nothing to do with a workshop. This is the side of ISMP where everyone just spends time together.
Davis, at Yosemite.
