By Kathryn Rice
Friends of International Students (FIS) provides community members with the unique opportunity to befriend Northwest Missouri State students from other countries.
The organization’s goal is to give these students the opportunity to interact and experience the United States outside of the collegiate setting. The program provides support to the students as they become adjusted to their new home and promotes friendship and understanding among people of different nationalities.
FIS is currently seeking families and individuals to become a friend. Friends are asked to make contact once a month during their year-long commitment to the program. Contact can take many forms. Friends and students can spend as much or as little time together as their schedules allow. FIS is sometimes confused with the high-school-age foreign-exchange program. The Northwest Missouri State University students live either in the dorms or local apartments, not with FIS members.
Barry and Zola Steinman, Albany, have been part of FIS since 2011.
“I enjoy welcoming new people to the US and learning about their culture,” Barry said. “My wife says it’s like a reverse vacation.”
“I don’t go out of my way,” Zola said about her role. “The students will often cook dishes from their homelands. We’ve learned so much about other cultures. We don’t put on airs, we are just like we are.”
The Steinmans do a visit to their farm, north of Albany, each fall for all the FIS students, which is popular. The students get the chance to fish, have a picnic and see the operations of the farm. Some of the students will also do presentations about their country and customs to the Albany elementary students.
“I always wanted a large family,” Barry said. “And now I have a large international one.”
“It’s the start of long term friendships,” Louise Horner said. “Just recently we had one of our second year students come back to visit.”
She and her husband, Channing, have been part of FIS since 2012. Both of the Horners are Northwest retired professors and live in Maryville.
“I hope we have been able to give the students an ‘anchor’ in the US and introduce them to some new places and experiences,” said Horner. “However, many of them have done more for us than we have done for them. It is also fun to see ‘our’ students interact with each other and become a family.”
Activities can include family dinners, attending sporting events, doing yard work, a quick phone call or text. The activities are up to the interests of the friends and students. FIS is trying to find more community members to become friends as interest by international students is outnumbering the current friends in the program.
If interested in becoming a friend, complete the application found at nwmissouri.edu/international/
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