The Friendship Initiative, which has been in existence for more than 20 years, helps pair international students with American students for one year.

OIS offers many initiatives to help international students adjust to the cultural shock after arriving in the United States.

Lauren Ball, Programs Coordinator at the OIS, said the goal of the Friendship Initiative is to help international students adjust to life in the United States.

“Friendship Initiative matches international students with Americans here in Raleigh or anywhere, but we mostly prefer students from N.C State,” Ball said.

The initiative has an application process for both American and international students, but according to Ball, none of the applications are rejected.

“Friends get together once a month and it’s an year long commitment. We received 80 applications form international students and 25 from Americans. While one international student is paired with one American, each American tends to be paired with at least 2 international students,” Ball said.

Though Friendship Initiative program helps international students understand the culture, it is a year-long commitment.

“The Friendship program requires commitment and a few students wait until spring to apply.  Exchange students can also be a part of this initiative in which case it lasts for one semester” Ball said.

According to Thomas Greene, associate director for OIS, international students need to learn re learn a few things that they already know.

“Small things like riding a bus, using a phone and getting a driving license are some of the things that these students need to learn, such an initiative would be certainly helpful in solving these problems,” Greene said.

Programs like Friendship, Brick and Bread and International Students & Scholars Engaged in Reaching out and Volunteering are promoted at various events by OIS. 

“The pre-arrival package has information about the programs, we also talk about these programs during orientation sessions,” Ball said.

According to Ball, student organizations like MAITRI, Indian graduate student association and CSSFA, Chinese student and Scholars’ friendship association promote programs like friendship.

“Understanding cultures and having people to ask questions always helps, being paired with an American student helps them learn about their new home,” Ball said.

Sangram Chavan, a graduate student in business administration and a member of MAITRI, said he feels that such initiatives are helpful for international students to understand the American culture.

“I know about the initiative but I didn’t participate, but it is very popular with Indian students here at N.C State,” Chavan said.

Ball said she feels along with academic challenges there are cultural challenges. Many students are leaving their home for the first time and most of them have no personal transportation at N.C State.

Though such initiatives exist, they need to be promoted, many of the international students might not be aware of such initiatives because out of 700 incoming students, only 80 odd are a part of the initiative, according to Ball.

Aniruddha Aniruddha, a graduate student in business administration, said, “Though such initiatives exist, quite a few international students are not aware of such initiatives. It would be really good to know about a different culture.”

According to Ball, OIS is trying hard to promote these initiatives at every possible event and create awareness about such initiatives.

“Getting to know someone from foreign culture adds to experience. Lot of learning takes place outside the class as well,” Ball said.

Ball also pointed out the benefits of such an initiative to American students and appealed for their encouragement and participation.

“It’s an opportunity to welcome a significant part of N.C State population to the Wolfpack family,” Ball said. N.C State students are fortunate to not having to leave country to interact with other cultures.”