The ELI Weekly
Scholarship Nominees
It is very difficult to be nominated for a scholarship. The nominees all worked extra hard this semester and achieved the following criteria:
- Full-time C semester student
- Academic Excellence
- Outstanding Progress
- Excellent Attendance and Participation
- Practices English
- Successful Academic Work Strategies
- Intercultural Understanding/ Relationships
- see more about the scholarship here: https://eli.ufl.edu/application-information/scholarship/
Out and About: Beach Dream
by the students in GM20
Ten years ago, I went to a new city. I went to a new school in Miami and then I saw an interesting place. It was the beach and Latin culture. It is very important for learning Spanish language. Then I met different people: Aaref, Afra, Azzam, Carolina, Diego, Laura, Manuel, Maria, Mazen, Nao, Nija, Pao, Paola, Sultan, and Woonchae. I was surprised because they are good people. In this place, the weather was rainy and sunny. We traveled by train in Miami and we played volleyball on the beach, and we saw a shark on the sand on the beach. We took a rest and the shark told us, “Help me. Let’s eat together. More water. Push me into the ocean.” Then shark bit me. The shark… My friend lost her arm. So we ate the shark. In the hospital, put the arm back on my friend. In other words, big cities are dangerous and famous – for example, this story and natural actors from GM20. Finally, I make a movie about our story. I wake up. We promise it was dream.
CIP Weekend Activities
Weekend Event
Saturday April 8th – Daytona Beach Bus Trip
You must have already purchased a bus pass from Tate; the bus is now sold out. If you would like to drive yourself, please talk to Tate in the CIP Office. Please also talk to Tate if you would like to be added to the waiting list.
What to bring: Bring your bathing suit, towel, change of clothes, snacks or packed food, water, any beach activities you would like to bring, and money to buy lunch or dinner if you choose to.
Please make sure to follow the schedule below: 
Other CIP Reminders
CIP Passports
Don’t forget to get your CIP Passport hole punched from the activity leaders AT the event (not after). We will no longer hole punch passports after the event. Redeem your completed passport for a small gift and photo for the ELI Instagram! Remember the CIP Pineapple is hidden in a new place every Monday in the CIP office. Stop by and find it for hole punches!
Conversation Partners (CPs)
Sign up for a CP here: https://forms.gle/8nDmxEbrzaSP92Cj8
Remember, if you sign up, you must meet your partner at least once a week and respond to their messages. Email conversationpartners@eli.ufl.edu if you have any questions or problems or stop by the CIP office to see Will during his office hours.
Notes from the Office
Student Voices: We love to see our students writing. Every semester, we take your writing and publish it in Student Voices. Past submissions have included paragraphs, essays, creative stories, recipes, letters, obituaries, poetry, creative stories, class projects, and other interesting works on a variety of topics. I encourage you to submit anything of your work that you wish to see published. It can be from any class or something you have written on your own but ask your teachers for help editing! You can email it to Olga (omoody@ufl.edu) or to your teacher. Please include your name and class on your submission. The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 14th .
Charges Due: Every ELI student should log in to ONE.uf.edu and look at the “Campus Finances (Bursar)” tile to see if they owe any fees to the university. For example, you may need to pay for services you received at the Student Health Care Center or printing in a library. If you have a scholarship, it will not pay these charges.
Check your I20s: If your I-20 is expiring soon, make an appointment with Daryl in MAT 223 to renew your I-20 before it expires.
Financial Guarantees for Summer: Dear scholarship students, we hope to see you again in the Summer! Therefore, we have sent you an early reminder to request your new financial guarantee letter for the Summer semester, if you plan to return. If you need an enrollment letter or if you have any questions, please email Jennifer Vann at jvann@eli.ufl.edu.
US Federal Tax Forms for International Students
Taxes are due on April 18th this year. Taxes are filed for the previous calendar year, which in this case is 2022. If you didn’t earn money in the U.S. in 2022, you won’t owe taxes; however, if you were an international student in a U.S. school in 2022, you must file Form 8843 for you and your dependents whether you worked at a campus job in 2022 or not.
As a UF ELI student you can use a free non-immigrant tax filing program called Sprintax to file tax form 8843. Daryl Bish emailed you how to access Sprintax. Contact him at studyenglish@eli.ufl.edu or make an appointment to talk with in 223 Matherly Hall if you did not receive information about Sprintax. You must access Sprintax through a secure portal, and you must use your Gatorlink information to enter the program.
If do not use Sprintax, you can print form 8843, complete and sign it, and mail it to the government. You can access form 8843 here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8843.pdf. Fill out the information under Part I and Part III. In 9 and 10, you need to include the information about the academic institution that you attended in 2022. You can find the address and phone number for the ELI at www.eli.ufl.edu. The name of the director of the ELI is Megan Forbes.
Mail your completed form to this address:
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Austin, TX 73301
If you had on campus employment in 2022, you will receive a form reporting your income and tax withholdings called a W-2. Because you earned taxable and reportable income and must submit a federal tax return to file your W-2. You also must file form 8843. Sprintax can help you do both.
The ELI is not permitted to assist any student with any IRS tax form preparation or give tax advice, but if you have questions about the above information, please contact Daryl Bish.
Photo of the Week
Birthdays!
Students:
- Saqer Alobaid 4/5
- Tariq Al-Rashid 4/6
- Hyeonjeong Oh 4/7
- Alejandro Justiniano Cascales 4/9
Staff:
- Andrew Hong 4/9
- Claire Lutz 4/2
Notes from the Editor
- I hope to hear from you soon. I need more grammar, manners, and culture questions to answer in the ELI Weekly
- Send me your stories to share with the ELI community!
- Do you know about a must-see place in your country? Tell us all about it in the Weekly!
- Send questions and stories to Maya (mshastri@ufl.edu)