Starting college is one of those things that looks a lot smoother from the outside than it feels on the inside. It’s exciting in the best way possible – but also terrifying. And if you are coming from another country, or really anywhere away from home and unfamiliar, that feeling multiplies fast. When I arrived at UMass and the months leading up to it, as an international student, I had a million small questions and no idea who to reach out to with them. Not big, important ones – the silly ones. The ones you are almost embarrassed to say out loud. Where do I go if I’m confused about my schedule? What fan to buy? Which residential area to choose? What if my questions are too small to bother someone with? Those were the ones that got me. New Student and Family Programs is where I finally found people who made those questions feel welcome.
More Than An Office
NSFP’s work with new students starts long before you ever set foot on campus and stretches well past move-in day. From Guide to the U – online modules that help you get familiar with UMass before arrival – to Ready for the U, where you actually visit campus, meet fellow incoming students, and start finding your footing, to Welcome to the U, an immersive series of events during your first weeks designed to help you bond in fun and engaging ways – every piece exists to make sure you’re never just thrown in and expected to figure it out.
And Ready for the U is where it really gets good. Especially during the overnight sessions, incoming students stay in the residential halls, spend their evenings doing things like late night karaoke and grabbing snacks at the Blue Wall, and connect in small groups before the semester even starts. It sounds simple. But showing up to your first college experience laughing with strangers at midnight does something to you. By the time your first week rolls around, you already have a friendly face in the crowd – and that matters more than people realize.
Describing NSFP as just a programming office is like describing a home as just four walls. What they actually do is build the conditions for students to feel like they belong here. That’s a different thing entirely.
What Three Years on the Inside Taught Me
I joined NSFP as a Student Office Assistant my first summer on campus and came back the following year as a Student Coordinator. Two years in, I can tell you the thing that makes this office unlike anything else at UMass isn’t found in any program description.
It’s the culture they’ve built inside that office.
The professional staff remember things – not in a polite, surface-level way, but in a “you mentioned something weeks ago and they circled back”, kind of way. They celebrate you, and not just on your birthday. Little wins, tough weeks, small breakthroughs – all of it gets
acknowledged. Before any celebration, they ask how you want to be recognized – loudly or quietly, called out in front of everyone or acknowledged privately. And at the start of every week, one question that always stuck with me: what’s one thing you want to do for yourself this week? That question sounds small. It isn’t. It’s the difference between feeling managed and feeling known.
My first summer, we made it a point from day one to actually get to know each other – not through icebreakers, but through late nights exploring Amherst, ice cream runs to Flayvors, bowling, afternoons out at Lake Wyola. This was a community before it was a job. The
friendships I found through NSFP didn’t just stay friendships. They became family.
Why You Should Care
As an international student, I know what it feels like when the tiniest logistical question – which dining hall to use, what fan to buy for your dorm, how to actually talk to people – becomes the thing that makes or breaks your first week. Those questions don’t feel silly when you’re living them.
During orientation, I had the privilege of helping thousands of incoming students and their families find their footing. What struck me every single time was how much it meant to them to hear it from a student – someone who had stood in that exact spot and made it through. NSFP understands that better than most, and it’s what this place gave me too – confidence, a willingness to ask for help, and something I didn’t know I was missing when I walked through the door: a sense of belonging.
The Bottom Line
UMass is a big school. But NSFP is proof that the right people can make even the biggest campus feel like home.
If you’re new, go to orientation with intention. If you’re looking for somewhere to grow and give back, this is it. And if you have a question that feels too small to ask – that’s exactly what they’re there for.
