Volunteer International Students Assistance

132A, Cody Hall, University of Windsor

401, Sunset Avenue, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4
Phone: (519) 560 1870
Fax: (519) 561 1472
visa@uwindsor.ca
visa.uwindsor.ca


V.I.S.A.: Goals and Objectives 2009-2010

The academic year of 2009-2010 will be a pivotal one for the Volunteer International
Students Assistance. At the end of the year, V.I.S.A. will be approaching a historical
milestone; the Tenth Year anniversary of V.I.S.As founding.
During these ten years, V.I.S.A. has gone from strength to strength and has become the
second largest volunteer student group on campus, with over 150 students as a volunteer
base. It has also become arguably, the most diverse student group on campus, with students
from over 40 different countries making up its volunteer base. These students include a
multitude of nationalities, religions, ethnic backgrounds, physical ability and sexual
orientation.
During the past three years, V.I.S.A. has undergone a huge transformation from a student
group looking to transition new International students to Canadian culture, to one that has
successfully raised charitable donations to worthy causes, provided volunteer opportunities
for both International as well as Domestic students and undertaking events to showcase the
diversity of the student population on campus. While we still actively gear our efforts to
enabling a smooth transition for new International students, we are looking to expand our
volunteer base and improving on the new areas of interest that we have developed over the
past few years.
This paper will highlight the objectives of V.I.S.A. for the coming year of 2009-2010 for the
group as a whole, as well as specific areas of V.I.S.A. Furthermore, one of the key objectives
in the coming year will be a celebration of V.I.S.A.s tenth year anniversary. The planned
celebration for this occasion is also a key part of this paper and V.I.S.A.s goals and
objectives for the coming year of 2009-2010.

2
V.I.S.A. Executive Committee, 2009-2010


Coordinator
o Pumudu Karunaratne
Email; visa@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519) 560 1870

Executive, Events
o Vanessa Sperduti
Email: sperdutv@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519) 735 6342

Executive, Publications
o Lulua Mala
Email: mala@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519) 991 6032

Executive, Training & Operations
o Aya Komatsu
Email: komatsu@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519) 992 0287

Executive, Special Events & Fundraising
o Alanna Oddoye
Email: oddoye@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519) 992 0225

Executive, Community Outreach
o Jesleen Singh
Email: budhira@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519) 566 1625

Associate, Events
o Sheryl Bennett
Email: bennett4@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519) 991 4213

Associate, Publications
o Avinesh Wadhwa
Email: wadhwaa@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519) 992 4470

Associate, Training & Operations
o Marsha Pereira
Email: pereiram@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519) 992 4933


3
Contents


Short Term Goals 4

Re-launch of the V.I.S.A. Website 4

UWindsor Amazing Race 5

Mid-range Goals 6

Successful Fundraising Initiatives 6

Special Events & Fundraising 6

Volunteer Training 7

Off-campus Involvement 7

Long-term Goals 8

Expand the Volunteer Base of V.I.S.A. 8

Co-curricular Transcript 9

V.I.S.A. 10
th
Anniversary Event 10






4
Short-term Goals

These are goals that have been set for V.I.S.A. to be achieved during the first two months of
the 2009-2010 academic year. Planning for these goals are at an highly advanced stage, and
the results of these goals will be beneficial both in the long-term and short-term for both
V.I.S.A. and students at the University of Windsor.



Re-launch of the V.I.S.A. Website
The V.I.S.A. website (found at http://visa.uwindsor.ca) has not been functional
since October 2007. During this time, V.I.S.A. has struggled to find a permanent
webmaster to maintain and update the website, as it is a volunteer position.
This has often been a problem for V.I.S.A. in marketing and promoting our events
and activities, and especially when reaching out to potential sponsors.
For the past two weeks, we have got together the V.I.S.A. Publications team, and a
some dedicated volunteers to alleviate this situation. Through their combined efforts,
the Information Technology Services (I.T. Services) of the University of Windsor
have begun responding favorably to our efforts to re-design and re-launch the
website.
The deadline set the by the V.I.S.A. Executive Committee for the re-launch of the
website is September 04
th
, 2009.
The Publications team has been working with the rest of the team to gather content
and design the new-look V.I.S.A. website. The only delays we have encountered so
far have been from I.T. Services, due to staff vacation schedules. However, I am
confident V.I.S.A. will have its website up again by the deadline.






5
UWindsor Amazing Race
The UWindsor Amazing Race is an event V.I.S.A. will be solely organizing and
conducting as part of Windsor Welcome Week.
Based on the highly successful and popular Television show, the UWindsor Amazing
Race will see students in groups of two trying to solve clues and complete tasks
specific to different countries around the world. This event will take place on
September 11
th
on campus premises, from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.
At the end of the event, V.I.S.A. will be conducting its first meeting of the semester,
as well as a celebration of the student participants and the efforts of volunteers. The
goal of this event is to spread awareness of V.I.S.A. among both Domestic and
International students.
So far, V.I.S.A. has managed to acquire sponsorship and support for this event from
on-campus organization such as the Educational Development Center, the
International Student Center, and the Italian Studies Department as well as off-
campus sponsors whove provided sponsorship for the end of event celebration.
We are extremely optimistic of the success of this event, because we have managed
to get an enthusiastic response from students and volunteers so far. If successful, I
hope this will be an event that can be repeated by V.I.S.A. Executive Committees of
the future.












6
Mid-range Goals

These are sets of goals that V.I.S.A. will set out to achieve through the first six months of
the 2009-2010 year. The planning for these events and activities are not as advanced as
short-term goals, but the groundwork for these activities have been set out by the V.I.S.A.
Executive Committee.



Successful Fundraising Initiatives
As V.I.S.A. is a non-funded organization, successful fundraising initiatives will be the
key to sustainability of the group. To this effect, the V.I.S.A. Events team will be
conducting fundraisers throughout the fall semester.
I have identified V.I.S.A.s annual Halloween fundraiser Pub Night as the key
fundraising event for this semester. This event in the past years has been extremely
successful and popular among students.
Besides this, the Events team is also planning a variety of smaller-scale fundraising
activities such as bake sales through the semester.
I believe strongly that our Events team is extremely qualified, innovative and full of
energy to successfully complete these goals.


Special Events & Fundraising
The Executive for Special Events & Fundraising is a new position created in the year
of 2008-2009, whose responsibility is to organize & coordinate successful fundraising
initiatives for a humanitarian cause.
The first such event, Visions for Darfur was meant to raise awareness over the
sufferings of the people in the Darfur region in Sudan. Despite some hindrances, the
event was successful and managed to raise over $ 300.00 for Oxfam Canada, which
in turn was donated to victims in Darfur.
7
This year, we will be conducting a similar event to raise awareness on another
humanitarian crisis in the world. However, as we learned last year planning for this
type of event requires many months of preparation. Therefore, we will be holding
this event in winter 2010.
But, planning for this event will take place in earnest over the fall semester. Currently
the team has yet to decide on the cause we will be supporting this year. But the
Executive for Special Events and Fundraising will provided a tentative list of causes
we can support by the end of September.


Volunteer Training
The importance of volunteering and being a positive influence in the community is
something V.I.S.A. has strived to emphasize to International students at the
University of Windsor. Volunteering is one of the most effective ways to create
connections and assist with networking, while at the same time doing something
good for the city, fellow students and the community as a whole.
Throughout this year, the Training & Operations team of V.I.S.A. will conduct
training sessions which will be open to both International and Domestic students,
which will show the need for volunteering, as well as the benefits that come with
volunteer experience.
V.I.S.A. conducted the first such training session in fall 2008, with assistance from
United Way. The main goal for the Training and Operations team this year will be to
hold more such training sessions, as well as those regarding Leadership training.


Off-campus Involvement
In the past three years, V.I.S.A. has managed to find volunteer opportunities for
students at organizations off-campus. These experiences have enabled students to
build up their portfolios with a vast array of different volunteer experiences.
Some of these off-campus volunteer opportunities were provided through
organizations such as the Senior Center, the Teen Health Center and United Way.
8
In the coming year, I am expecting even more involvement for students with
organizations off-campus.
Our Executive for Community Outreach has been detailed on the task of creating
more contacts, maintaining the present contacts we have with the community and
creating more volunteer opportunities for students off-campus.



Long-term Goals

These are goals and activities that will be conducted over the whole year of 2009-2010. The
results of achieving these goals successfully will be beneficial to V.I.S.A. beyond the present
academic year.
Planning for these goals and activities are in basic stages, and will be expanded on through
the semester of fall 2009.



Expand the Volunteer Base of V.I.S.A.
While V.I.S.A. has always been able to attract Domestic or non-international
students to its activities over the years, Canadian student participation has been less
frequent. This is a hindrance especially to new International students as well, who
sometimes do not have a better opportunity to meet Canadian students outside of an
academic environment.
To address this situation, we will be taking several steps over the coming year;
o Firstly, we have appointed a Canadian student as Executive for Events with
V.I.S.A. for the year of 2009-2010. She is extremely qualified for a position
such as Executive for Events, and we are hoping she will be able to attract
more Canadian student participation with V.I.S.A.


9
o Secondly, we are hoping to publicize our major events and volunteer
opportunities with Students Orienting Students (S.O.S.) in order to reach to
the large Canadian student base they have. We have been supported on this
initiative by the Educational Development Center (E.D.C.) as well.
o Third, with events such as the UWindsor Amazing Race, we are hoping to
create more awareness of V.I.S.A. among Canadian students. These events
will give a good opportunity to create interest among Canadian students
regarding V.I.S.A. and in turn giving them an incentive to volunteer and
participate in our events and activities on a regular basis.



Co-curricular Transcript
It is our understanding that the Co-curricular transcript for students will be available
from the fall 2009 semester. However, as it stands the beneficiaries of the co-
curricular transcript in V.I.S.A. will be only the Executive members of the group.
Through the year, many students volunteer with V.I.S.A., despite not being
Executive members. In the past year, V.I.S.As records showed 12 students who had
contributed over 25 hours of volunteer work, as well as 20 students who had
volunteered over 15 hours, over the year.
We are hoping to find a way for such students, as well as other who volunteer with
V.I.S.A., to also receive recognition for their work through the co-curricular
transcript.
Since this is a situation I was made aware of recently, we are hoping to create a
solution to any unfair situation students may face regarding the co-curricular
transcript in the future.





10
V.I.S.A. 10
th
Year Anniversary


In May 2010, V.I.S.A. will be celebrating its 10
th
year anniversary.
To celebrate this, we are planning several events spreading out over winter 2010 to
fall 2010.
The main event in winter will be a celebration of V.I.S.A.s achievements, its history
and continuing progress with a dinner at the Ambassador auditorium. This event will
be by invitation-only to students, staff, faculty and V.I.S.A. alumni. This event is still
very much in its planning stage, but tentatively the date for the event will be either
23
rd
or 24
th
of April, 2010.
Secondly, more events will take place in fall 2010, under the new Executive team for
2010-2011. These event details have not been finalized as of yet.