International students found American friends at the Crossing Borders Outreach Team's first peer pairing program meeting Wednesday evening. More than 180 American students and 80 international students showed interest in meeting each other and developing friendships.
"Our purpose is to draw international students into the social life at Ball State," Robyn Geelhoed, director of the program, said.
American students attended a one-hour training session to gain insight on how to interact with their international counterparts.
Geelhoed wanted to get two strong messages across to the American students.
"Persistence and initiation is the first message," she said. "It's up to the U.S. students to call their international partners because it probably won't happen the other way around, The second message is about communication and assumptions. Cross-cultural communication can be very hard so what we try to train people to do is try not to make assumptions and ask if you have a question."
During training, students were encouraged to take their international partners out to do typical American activities together, such as going to movies, getting coffee or attending campus events.
"Last year students got together in groups and cooked for each other and really had a good time," Geelhoed said.
After the training session, international students arrived to meet their American partners. Because of the number of American volunteers, each international student was paired with two American students.
Zafer Carhacioglu, a graduate student from Istanbul, Turkey, met his American partners at the meeting.
"I just want to meet American people because mostly I just know international people here," Carhacioglu said.
He said he has been in Muncie for about a month and is glad he decided to join the peer pairing program.
"It's a good thing that I joined this program, and I think that I'm not alone here so it makes me comfortable," he said.
Fourth-year student Kyla Cole, one of Carhacioglu's partners, wasn't sure about the program initially.
"I was a little weary when we first started," Cole said. "I was afraid he'd be a little shy and not sure, but he's really outgoing,"
Freshman Tiffany Premo, Carhacioglu's second partner, said she was excited about meeting international students before she even met him.
"I've always liked other cultures and have been interested in things like that, so to me it's just something interesting," she said.
Crossing Borders puts on one event each month for all of the participants to join in on. Last year, students decorated Easter eggs together and helped plant flowers at the Minnetrista Cultural Center. This year, planned events may include bowling and tailgating football games.
Deniz Canel Cinarbas, a graduate student from Turkey, is part of the Crossing Borders Outreach team. She came to the United States several years ago and knows what it's like to transition into American culture.
"Being away from home and away from family and friends and just figuring out a living situation can be difficult," she said.
Cinarbas said she wants international students to know what great possibilities the peer pairing program can provide to them.
"It's a great opportunity for internationally students to get to meet American students, make friends, get to know American culture and the campus," she said.
American students were recruited by mass e-mails, but international students were harder to attract.
"Many international students didn't respond to e-mails so what we did this year was attend their orientation meeting, and Crossing Borders hosted a luncheon for them," Geelhoed said. "They got a chance to meet us and we got a chance to tell them about the program and simply welcome them to the university."
The program begins again each semester so that new American and international students can participate.
"I think it's a really strong lesson learned to be able to communicate cross-culturally," Geelhoed said. "Students learn about what it's like to get exposed to someone who has a different world view."
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