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PITTSBURG —
Some beautiful friendships may have started Friday when the latest group of Pitt Pals met at the Pittsburg State University Recreation Center for games and pizza.
“We’ll probably have 90 pairs this semester,” said Brenda Hawkins, administrative assistant in the PSU International Programs and Services Office, who heads the Pitt Pals program.
She explained that Pitt Pals teams American PSU students with international students. Interested persons register online.
“We match them by interest, by the degree they’re seeking, if they’re in the same dorm,” Hawkins said. “This is a one-semester commitment.”
The pairs are expected to spend at least one hour per week together at an activity of their choice. The American student helps the international student get acquainted with U.S. culture and customs.
“They can invite the internationals student to their home, take them to a football game, and so on,” Hawkins said. “Ideally, it’s a two-way street, and the international student will invite the American to international events and share their culture.”
Two pals meeting at the Recreation Center were Andrea Hucke, Cherryvale, and Zhang Chao, China.
“In high school, we had a lot of exchange students,” Hucke said. “I enjoyed getting to know them and made a lot of really good friends. I wanted to carry that over to college and help out if I could.”
Zhang said that this is her first time to America.
“I will be an exchange student here for one year,” she said. “I want to become good friends with Andrea and have fun.”
Hucke’s brother, Mitchell Hucke, was waiting to meet his new pal.
“I had a Chinese roommate for three years when I attended the University of Kansas, and I helped him a lot with our culture,” he said. “We took him camping and he assimilated really well. I kind of wanted to do the same thing here.”
Bartholomew Klick and his pal, Alfred Qi, also from China, met a couple of weeks ago.
“We both registered for the Pitt Pals program, and they matched us,” Klick said.
Qi, a mechanical engineering student, said he was glad to have Klick for a pal and he likes Pittsburg very much.
“It’s a beautiful place, peaceful,” he said. “I like the squirrels. In China, you might see them in the big parks, but you can’t see them in the downtown or cities at all.”
Some beautiful friendships may have started Friday when the latest group of Pitt Pals met at the Pittsburg State University Recreation Center for games and pizza.
“We’ll probably have 90 pairs this semester,” said Brenda Hawkins, administrative assistant in the PSU International Programs and Services Office, who heads the Pitt Pals program.
She explained that Pitt Pals teams American PSU students with international students. Interested persons register online.
“We match them by interest, by the degree they’re seeking, if they’re in the same dorm,” Hawkins said. “This is a one-semester commitment.”
The pairs are expected to spend at least one hour per week together at an activity of their choice. The American student helps the international student get acquainted with U.S. culture and customs.
“They can invite the internationals student to their home, take them to a football game, and so on,” Hawkins said. “Ideally, it’s a two-way street, and the international student will invite the American to international events and share their culture.”
Two pals meeting at the Recreation Center were Andrea Hucke, Cherryvale, and Zhang Chao, China.
“In high school, we had a lot of exchange students,” Hucke said. “I enjoyed getting to know them and made a lot of really good friends. I wanted to carry that over to college and help out if I could.”
Zhang said that this is her first time to America.
“I will be an exchange student here for one year,” she said. “I want to become good friends with Andrea and have fun.”
Hucke’s brother, Mitchell Hucke, was waiting to meet his new pal.
“I had a Chinese roommate for three years when I attended the University of Kansas, and I helped him a lot with our culture,” he said. “We took him camping and he assimilated really well. I kind of wanted to do the same thing here.”
Bartholomew Klick and his pal, Alfred Qi, also from China, met a couple of weeks ago.
“We both registered for the Pitt Pals program, and they matched us,” Klick said.
Qi, a mechanical engineering student, said he was glad to have Klick for a pal and he likes Pittsburg very much.
“It’s a beautiful place, peaceful,” he said. “I like the squirrels. In China, you might see them in the big parks, but you can’t see them in the downtown or cities at all.”
Some matching really do result in lasting friendships. Ashly Farmer, Pittsburg, and Omiya Kabir, a graduate student from Bangladesh, were paired in January and have been good friends ever since.
“I was really nervous before I met Omiya because I didn’t know anything about Bangladesh,” Farmer said. “I put together a care package of snacks for her. It turned out that she had been in more places in the United States than I had, so I was asking her to tell me about them.”
Kabir previously visited the United States in 2009 and has relatives living in Chicago, Los Angeles and Denver.
“I worked for a bank and my job required me to travel a lot, mainly to other Asian countries but also in Europe,” she said.
Despite growing up thousands of miles apart, they discovered many common interests.
“We read the same novels, watched the same TV shows and movies,” Farmer said.”
They had planned to just chat a little the first time they met, but ended up talking for three hours.
“We hang around a lot,” Kabir said. “Ashly took me to my first-time baseball game, the Kansas City Royals, and I watched football at her place. I tried to tell her about cricket. I experienced Easter the first time at her house, and she came to know about Ramadan, which has just ended.”
The two also enjoy experimental cooking, and plan to teach each other about the foods of their cultures.
“Ashly will learn how to make biryani, and I will learn apple pie,” Kabir said.
