Now that I have finally finished my project it feels like I have been on a journey where I have learned so much but in such a short time.
I have interviewed 3 amazing interviewees who gave me their own personal views which allowed me to gain my own insight and form my own opinion on the matter of how COVID-19 has affected the mental health and wellbeing of international students and what will happen in the future to improve their situation.
I can conclude that it is clear that sadly the pandemic isn't going away anytime soon and all of the learning will move to online. I still believe that there should be further measures put in place to help international students cope with their mental health and wellbeing whilst being away from home due to their home countries closing borders and their inability to fly home etc.
Additionally, having to conduct all of my interviews over the phone and on Zoom was a big inconvenience because sometimes the audio wasn't as best as it could have been if I was able to have met them all face-to-face. However, I did the best that I could do in the situation that I was forced into.
Overall, this experience has made me aware that international students do not get enough mental health support. Universities do have general wellbeing advisors but as Maika told me “the advisors are not international students, so they don’t understand us.” Therefore, I hope that this documentary has helped, even a little bit, to give a voice to the underrepresented international students.
This Multi-Media Project has enabled me to learn how to cover sensitive topics such as mental health stories and has certainly made me a more well-rounded journalist and person. I really enjoyed the challenge that came with this unit and I am immensely proud to have created an original and powerful piece of work.
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