Campus Christian Fellowship organization has started a bike loan program tailored specially for international students on campus.
Joe Blanchard, campus minister of Campus Christian Fellowship said the program will enable international students to get bikes for transportation at a low cost.
“We loan bikes to international students on campus so that they can ride it along for a semester and return back at the end of semester. They can also keep it longer if they want,” Blanchard said.
Caleb Johnson, junior in chemistry is also an active member of CCF. He said this is a very good initiative taken by CCF.
“We are offering this only to international students. When the international students arrive on campus, they have a lot to worry about and the bikes are expensive to buy, especially if they are here only for a semester or so. We provide bike loan opportunity where the students can get the bikes just paying $20 deposit which they will get back once they return the bikes at the end of the semester,” Johnson said.
According to Blanchard, this is a new project and is currently being implemented on a small scale.
“We have around 3000 international students on campus. Thus the need is big. We currently have 12 bikes and we are looking for volunteers who wish to donate their bikes. Before lending the bikes, we service the bikes and give it to students in good condition. We are also working with the Office of International Services to get this process streamlined from next semester,” Blanchard said.
He wants students with older or unused bikes to contribute to the cause.
“I appeal to the students who want to donate their bikes to come out in numbers so that more international students can benefit from this initiative. Those who want to donate their bikes can send me an email. We are also looking for someone who can assist us with bike repair as we have a strict policy of servicing the bike before we lend it to anyone,” Blanchard said.
CCF is also trying to get registered with the transportation department to make the process speed up for the next semester, according to Blanchard.
“Those who want to apply for this bike loan program can fill out a form on http://ccf-ncsu.org . We serve the requests on a first come first serve basis. Our aim is to make this facility available to as many international students as we can. But, as this is the first semester this program is being implemented, there will be limitations in the supply of bikes as opposed to demand. We hope this will change from the next semester,” he said.
Currently, lots of international students use the bus service for their daily commute.
According to Gaurav Tungatkar, graduate student in computer science department and an international student, this program is positive because it gives students options.
“Personally, I sometimes feel the transportation from the place I live to the Centennial Campus should be better, especially when all my classes are in that campus. If I am getting the bike at such low cost, practically none, I will definitely go for it,” Tungatkar said.
Campus Christian Fellowship is a non-denominational campus ministry that focuses on building lifelong friendships and raising up leaders to serve in the local church. They also serve students from campuses of Meredith, Shaw, Peace and Wake Tech along with N.C. State.
