IIE Awards Emergency Fund Scholarships to Rutgers International Students
Rutgers Global has teamed up with the Institute of International Education (IIE) to provide assistance to international students at the university impacted by COVID-19.
To date, 11 international students received emergency funds from Rutgers Global and IIE to help with the financial hardships stemming from the global pandemic.
Students selected for the awards were prioritized by need and impact. The students, all hailing from Wuhan and the surrounding areas, had experienced hardships when their banks were closed, or when their parents had to stop working due to the coronavirus. They were unable to return home and remained at Rutgers after all classes were moved to remote instruction.
Zixin Wang, a graduate student from the School of Management and Labor Relations, was one of the students who received emergency funding to help with her living expenses so she can focus on her studies.
“The funding not only lightened the pressure in worrying about whether I can pay for my rent, food, utilities bills and more next month, but it also helped reduce my family's financial burden because they weren’t able to earn any income for half a year,” Zixin Wang said.
The Hubei Province, where the coronavirus outbreak began, is home to more than 150 Rutgers students, said Jeff Wang, assistant vice president for global affairs, who led the effort to encourage students from this region to apply for emergency funds.
“We began monitoring the impact COVID-19 would have on our students in early January. Rutgers Global worked to ensure that impacted students could get relief in the very early stages of outbreak,” Jeff Wang said. “Through emergency grants from IIE and around the university, we were able to provide that relief in a very real way to these students.”
For Zixin Wang, that relief is more than financial.
“I truly appreciate the support that the IIE Emergency Fund and Rutgers Global has provided, and the effort made by every person who helped make this happen. I am committed to keep learning with my great passion and gratitude, and to get through the hard times and move forward.”
