The Impact of Renison and the General English at Renison Program
“Growth, Experience, and People” – the three words past General English at Renison (GEAR) student June (Jiwoon) Kang uses to describe her time at Waterloo and Renison University College. Studying in the February 2024 session of GEAR, June truly excelled – receiving the Academic Achievement Award for her accomplishments during the program. Reflecting on her time studying at Renison, she describes the impact of the curricular components of GEAR; she shares, GEAR classes “gave me various insights…thanks to this program I don’t hesitate or feel afraid of talking in English.”
But beyond her curricular learning, June speaks of the impact the Renison community, and the people that make it up, had on her and her confidence communicating in English.
When I studied at Renison, the people gave me lots of help. They always asked about my condition and if I had any problems, they were ready to solve them…the peer leaders gave me good memories. After classes, they prepared events and organized casual meetings for me. Thanks to them, I gained confidence in speaking English. They tried to understand even though my pronunciation was not perfect. They didn’t care about my accent or intonation. That was really helpful in building confidence for me.
Now, upon returning to Korea, June has gotten involved at her own university. Inspired by Renison’s peer leader team, June joined the E-Buddy program through which she supports an exchange student with any difficulties they face during their study and by connecting through one-on-one meetups like she did with her own Renison peer leaders! Beyond June’s commitment to getting involved and supporting students at her university, she has been inspired to continue her learning.
Now, I’m preparing to be an exchange student...thanks to the GEAR program, I can feel my improvement. The experience that I had in Canada gives me the driving force to study English continuously.
Many thanks to June for her willingness to share her experience at Renison | We wish her luck in her future studies and beyond!
Growth.
Experience.
People.
