International Peer Mentor Program Helps Foster Successful Transitions to BU
Mentor & Mentee Pair Reflect on Their Strong Connection
When Ava Azari (CAS ‘29) first came to Boston University to start her freshman year on a pre-med track she had never been to the United States before. She was relieved to receive an invitation from Global Programs’ International Peer Mentor (IPM) Program, who would pair her with a mentor and current BU student to help her have a successful personal and academic transition to BU.
Senior biology major Sofia Marzullo (CAS ’26) is Azari’s mentor, and she serves as a friendly go-to resource when Azari has questions about anything from the best places to shop to where pre-health classes are typically located. They are both on a pre-health track academically, so Azari will end up taking some of the same classes that Marzullo has. Upon meeting, they formed close ties and bonded over their shared passion for medicine and helping others, with Azari being a neurobiology major and pre-med and Marzullo on a pre-dental track.
“Knowing how unique the experience of being on the pre-health track is, I wanted to pair Ava with someone who would be able to explain the ins and outs of said experience and help with the overall cultural transition as well — an intricate, yet important task,” says Sheila Hernandez, Assistant Director of International Student Initiatives.
Reflecting on her time starting at BU and first learning about the IPM program, Azari remembers thinking, “I’d never even been to America before, so it was all new. I thought this sounds great. I needed someone to guide me and help.”
Indeed, Marzullo was thrilled to help ease Azari’s transition to BU and the United States. Even though Marzullo is not an international student herself, she says that all her family members who live in the U.S. are immigrants.
“[My family members] came to college for the first time as immigrants and were international students,” says Marzullo. “And a lot of the people I’m close to on campus are also international. And so, I thought what a great opportunity to maybe potentially meet some Nepali international students, because my mom is from Nepal, but also to get to meet some new faces around campus and feel connected to people in that kind of way.”
Marzullo’s connection to Nepal also influenced her interest in pursuing a pre-dental track academically. “I spent a lot of time growing up with my grandmother, and I quickly came to realize that oral hygiene, oral health, is something that doesn’t always have a lot of resources around the world,” she says. “I kind of witnessed the effects of seeing that through my grandma.”
Azari, with her interest in neurobiology and being pre-med, decided she wants to go to her future patients, perhaps by serving in emergency medicine. She says she wants to “solve immediate problems.”
“I want to learn different people’s stories, [in part] because I am international, and I’ve lived in so many different countries that [I’ve noticed] I really enjoy learning about these different cultures, different people,” says Azari. “And I think medicine is really kind of like an intimate picture into people’s lives.”
Marzullo encourages current domestic and international students to consider becoming peer mentors. “It’s awesome…I don’t think people really realize how much you gain from learning and hearing about other people’s cultures and experiences, and then also finding those niche, unique connections between you and your mentee,” she says. “At the end of the day, we’re here as students going through the same journey of school, which can be difficult at times, and I think that it’s really nice to just take a moment to sit and talk about little things and remind ourselves of home and family and culture.”