The International Student and Scholar Office has offered a skiing and snowboarding trip for international students to attend.

On Feb. 8, 36 participants will have the opportunity to go skiing or snowboarding on the loops of Seven Oaks.

For some of them it might be the first opportunity to experience outdoor winter sports.

“People have been here long enough to have seen snow but there are definitely people coming for whom it is their first winter,” said Katherine Lundberg, graduate student in education and graduate assistant in the International Student and Scholar Office.

Participants can choose to either try skiing or snowboarding. The event is organized by the outdoor recreation program whose staff members will be providing assistance in learning to ski and snowboard, so the skill level of the students does not really matter, said Lundberg.

“We will provide four staff members to go on the trip, who will help teach them skiing and snowboarding, and Seven Oaks will provide lessons, too,” said Jerry Rupert So there is going to be a lot of staff that will be available, half a dozen or more instructors,” said Jerry Rupert, assistant director of the outdoor recreation program.

Rupert said that he and his team have worked with international students before, so language barriers will likely not prove to be a problem.

“We have a really good participation rate from international students in general. So we work with that on a regular basis. It is not something new to our staff,” Rupert said.

The staff approach to teaching will be to demonstrate, explain and let people try out it out themselves.

“One of those three ways will allow them to learn. And even people that speak our language, they sometimes don’t learn how to do it by telling them either,” Rupert said.

The trip will allow participants to practice these sports for about three hours.

“With being out in the cold, subject to elements, especially as a beginner, that ends up being about as much time as you want to be out,” Lundberg said.

The outdoor recreation program has been working with the International Students and Scholars Office consistently through out the years.

“In the fall we did a trip to Ledges State Park which was more of a hiking and barbecue trip with outdoor rec,” Lundberg said. “It seemed a good idea to continue that relationship and to continue to provide these kind of trips to students.”

Lundburg said the trip is specifically aimed at international students and scholars but anyone is welcome to joining.

“We welcome anyone on our trips, because one of our missions is to provide cross-cultural engagement,” Lindburg said. “If American students want to come, that would accomplish that.”