International students from Tauranga Girls' College dispersed throughout the community on Tuesday to lend a helping hand.
The school held its annual work day, when students go out into the community and work for $30, on June 7.
Some students went to Alzheimer's Tauranga at Wesley church on 13th Avenue, and helped prepare a delicious spread for afternoon tea, as well as playing games and chatted with alzheimer's sufferers.
Other students were at a hospice sorting clothes and shoes, the SPCA cleaning cages, spending time with alzheimer's or stroke patients or perhaps at Gate Pa School teaching children about their home country.
'It gave them a look at parts of the community they aren't exposed to,” says Heather Drinnan, the college director of international students.
'They'll realise they offer so much to the community through their different backgrounds.”
The college is an international melting pot. There are 49 foreign students from countries including South Korea, Germany, Japan, France, Papua New Guinea, China, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Thailand, Netherlands, Austria and Ethiopia.
And most of those students were out doing things they'd organised themselves.
Myosung Gwak, Kelly Park, Emma Jacobsen.
Franziska Ruecker exchange student from Germany.
