Christmas break is often a time for students to go back home and spend some quality time with their relatives. Going home for the holidays isn’t possible for all students though and that can create a tough situation for many students.
For students like Laura Krause spending the holidays alone can be a tough circumstance to be in. Laura grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan but is now completing her studies in Edmonton at NAIT. Laura is unable to go home for the holidays due to her busy work schedule and the impracticality of making the long drive. Laura has been away from her family for almost a year and has missed Christmas before, but it still is difficult to be away from family.”It’s definitely more difficult, but it’s something that I’m kind of used to now, I’ve been away from them for over a year now so it’s not too hard.”
Laura’s friend Alex Galenza has opened her home to Laura for the holidays, offering to have her over for Christmas Day.
For international students it is a lot harder for them to go home for the holidays. NAIT’s Interantional Centre hopes to accommodate those students by not only having a year end dinner for the students, but also organize for NAIT faculty to have international students over to share a meal together. International Engagement Coordinator Freya Fu says that although students may be excited for Christmas they are still going to be feelings of being homesick. “There may also be feelings of homesickness from them as well because they’re far away from their parents, they can facetime they can skype but still it’s not in person so there’s the holiday new year type of homesickness in there.”
Christmas is a time to spend with those you care about, and NAIT students and faculty strive to have nobody spend Christmas alone.
