First Friends Program

The First Friends Program is designed to help our new international students acclimate to ECU and to American culture more generally. Improved outreach to international students through programs like this can help both retention and word of mouth recruiting. It also offers domestic students a chance to learn about different cultures and get more involved on campus. This flyer (First Friends Information Sheet) outlines the basics of the program. More information and the application can be found online.

This fall we will be making some changes to the program to stimulate interest and to improve effectiveness. Specifically, instead of assigning one domestic student to one international student as we have done in the past, we will be creating groups or teams consisting of two international students and two domestic students. We feel this improves students’ chances of connecting with others and reduces the social awkwardness and pressure of one-on-one interactions.

And second our office will be hosting a series of “Global Gatherings” to provide social activities specifically designed to introduce international students to unique aspects of American culture (tailgating, pumpkin carving, Thanksgiving potluck). Again, this change is designed to help foster connections and reduce the pressure for students to have to come up with social activities to engage in on their own.