Larry Karnes, chairman of International Friendship Program, has been a host since 2005. “Each year IFP will have 70 new participants and 200 international friendships going on.” Karnes said. This year IFP has participants from 42 countries.
Binbin Wang shows the photo taken with her host Larry Karnes and Susan Karnes. Wang joined International Friendship Program in 2013, and after graduated from MSU in May 2014, she talked with Karnes through phone call everyday. “I call Larry as ‘My American Dad’,” Binbin said, “Larry gave me so much support during my hard time when I was suffering from my grandma’s death and he always act as my mentor when I am choosing from different jobs.” Wang is planning to apply for her master degree in fall semester at MSU currently, “I felt I have a family here in East Lansing, so I’d like to come back.”
Elisha Defrain, committee member of International Friendship Program. Born and went to school in Michigan, Defrain never got a chance to be a friend with a person from another culture until she met her student Sissi Hsien, an undergraduate student from Taiwan. “She is so mature and always gave me inspiration from different perspective, and for me becoming a host means opening my horizon to the world.” Talking about the future plan for IFP, she said, “I’d like to get more word out.”
World Game Night, with its slogan, “come and bring games from your culture, learn new games from other countries,” was started by Amanda Ghanbarpour in August 2016. “It’s all because once I saw a statistic showing that only 13 percent of international students get a chance to step outside of their community and have an access to get into our community,” Ghanbarpour said. “That’s sad for me because, based on my own experience of being a foreigner in other countries, if there is no one offering, I am not willing to be the one pretending to be their friends. So I decided to be the one reaching out.”
Amanda Ghanbarpour is teaching Guannan Wang, an exchange student from China how to play card game “Peanuts”.
Mirza Al-Amin from Malaysia is learning to play card game Peanuts with his friends (Afiqah Romzi on the left, Hanis Hashim on the right). It is their first time being in the game night.
“Food is always building us bridge between cultures,” Carla Bieber said. Bieber cooked the carrot cake for potluck and Meng Chou brought scrambled eggs with tomatoes, it’s a dish her mom always cook for her at home.
Jack (Bieber's son) is holding the cat Pip to play with students. Bieber’s family has two cats and a dog, pets also play an important role in bringing different people together.
Carla Bieber is sitting with her kids and international students, telling a story of Easter Day.
Carla Bieber is decorating eggs with Yiting (international student from Taiwan) and Kenny (Carla's youngest son).
Duncan (Carla's oldest son) is decorating eggs with international students. “I’d like to bring my kids a world that are outside their surroundings, just around this table.” Carla said. Carla also wants her kids to learn how to communicate with people of different culture background and admit cultural diversity, “It is surprising that my kids see students from different countries just like themselves, they felt they have a lot in the same, and they became friends.”
Considering there are students who are going to leave the US and re-enter their home country after the potluck, Carla Bieber is handing out a booklet explaining the cultural readjustment situation.
More than 7,600 international students at MSU have become part of the Lansing community. Due to homesickness and language barriers, some international students choose to isolate themselves and never connect with locals in the Lansing community. However, with the help from International Friendship Program and Hope World Game Night, as well as the resident volunteers, the Lansing community has created a friendly atmosphere for international students to feel welcome, making a win-win outcome from promoting intercultural communication.
For more than 60 years, the International Friendship Program at MSU has been a volunteer-based nonprofit program. The program pairs international students with Lansing residents. Consequently, students like Binbin Wang felt they “have a home in Lansing,” hosts like Elisha Defrain felt her student “opening my horizon to the world.”
As a nonprofit program, IFP only receives a tiny portion of its budget from the Office of International Students and Scholars for orientations every semester. Members of the program volunteer to operate the committee. In recent years when there are more student participants, IFP sometimes had to rely on its old residential friends to pair. IFP is now also seeking to “get more words out.”
Card games and potlucks provide opportunities for international students to be
part of the community quickly. World Game Night, with its slogan, “come and
bring games from your culture, learn new games from other countries,” was started by Amanda Ghanbarpour in August 2016. Ghanbarpour decided “to be the one reaching out,” based on her own experience of living abroad.
With similar intention, Carla Bieber, a resident in Lansing, has been holding monthly international potlucks since August 2016. With more than three years of working with international students, Bieber believes food is the bridge for intercultural communication, and potluck is the best way to help international students, as well as her own children, learn from and acknowledge cultural diversity.