Concordia President Alan Shepard, left, with Malik Alick and his mother, Roseann Alick, at Concordia Parents Welcome Reception on August 29. | Photo: Joseph Dresdner
Anish Talwar, second from right, and his parents Rajiv and Sarita Talwar sign in at the Parents Welcome Reception on the Grey Nuns grounds. | Photo: Joseph Dresdner
“This event was a very good gesture from the university. It really helped us,” said Rajiv Talwar, a native of New Delhi, India. His son Anish will be studying computer science at Concordia.
“New Delhi is the heart of India, and downtown Montreal is the heart of Canada,” Anish Talwar said. “I love the green space and the nice and helpful people. Even the customs agents were nice.”
Marianne Moller Sorensen, a political science student from Denmark, was also left with a good first impression from the weekend. “I wanted to go the U.S. or Canada to get the real university experience, and then I heard about Montreal being a great university city,” she said. “I read about Concordia, and I decided to come here.”
Parents expressed both excitement and nervousness for their children, many of whom will be living on their own for the first time. Jean Shortreed’s son Connor will be studying computer science at Concordia. She advised him: “Study, take care of yourself and have fun.”
President Shepard’s advice to parents? “Support them but give them a bit of breathing room, too.”