Global Friendship

Welcome to the Global Friendship Program!

You are about to embark on the exciting and rewarding journey of meeting students and visiting scholars from around the world. Your particular journey will involve engaging other cultures while sharing your culture, learning about religious or spiritual traditions unlike your own, or discovering there is more than one way of organizing and governing society. In any case, we believe this journey will be a challenging and rewarding experience.

This program helps international students and scholars, as well as American families and individuals, connect with and learn from each other while studying or pursuing their undergraduate, graduate, or post-doctoral studies. The program was created to nurture and facilitate friendships across cultural, religious, and political boundaries that often separate international students and scholars and members of the dominant culture and/or host community.

The basic purposes of our GFP are change and respect—changing ourselves and respecting those who are different. This is so important it bears repeating: our GFP is about changing our attitudes towards those who are different and learning to understand and appreciate those differences. We believe it is possible, even necessary, in our globalized world, to overcome fear through the power of cross-cultural friendship. Our program facilitates connections or friendships based on respect. Participants in this program are expected to respect the religious, cultural and political beliefs of others and to refrain from trying to change them.

An Overview

International students are paired with a local friend from the community (a family, couple or individual) for an academic year. “Friendship families” provide an informal introduction to life in the United States, while students/scholars help their American friends learn more about their cultures. A successful friendship host family – student relationship is dependent on a shared effort. Matched pairs are expected to meet once per semester.

Both friendship host families and international students/scholars go through the same application process (both forms available online). International students, scholars, and their spouses may apply. Participants may make specific requests about matching preferences but an important part of the program is open-mindedness and flexibility. Thus, if requests cannot be fulfilled, participants are asked to be flexible.

Since the number of students interested in the program is always higher than the number of friendship families willing to participate, it’s likely that some international students/scholars will not be matched. Matching is based on hobbies, special interests, etc., that students and families have in common based on their application forms. If friendships don’t work for any reason, participants may contact the GFP Coordinator to discuss concerns and a possible new assignment.

Apply

Applications are available separately for Residents & Students, and Hosts & Families. Please follow a link below to submit your application.

When you have decided to apply, please review the guidelines to familiarize and prepare yourself for the Global Friendship Program experience.