IU group reaches out to foreign students

Moving away from home to go to college is often tough on students, especially when home is thousands of miles away. In order to help ease adjustment fears, the International Friendship Association, a student group at IU, offers a helping hand to foreign students coming to Bloomington. \nThe group will play host to a "Welcome Party" from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday in the Willkie Auditorium. The program is open to students, faculty and anyone else wishing to attend. \nSophomore and association President Omar Memon said the party is meant to serve as a "peer-to-peer networking event."\n"The Welcome Party is a campus-wide event and part of IFA's efforts to bring together international and domestic students under one roof," Memon said in an e-mail. "At the party, there will be more information available about IFA."\nMemon also said other international student organizations would have information tables and representatives at the party.\nThe group, formed to connect foreign students to the IU and Bloomington communities, seeks to ease exchange students' transitions to college life. Run by students, the association is governed by a board of students from Burma, South America, Pakistan, Japan and America, according to its Web site. \nStudents formed the association with the intention of easing foreign students into life on an American college campus. The organization helps prepare students before they come to IU, connects those students to the IU community and educates the students to feel more welcome, according to the Web site. \n"The International Friendship Association aims at uniting all students on the Bloomington campus by promoting racial, cultural, ethnic and religous diversity," Memon said in an e-mail.\nMemon said his groups work begins when a student contacts a member of the association's Executive Committee, usually by e-mail. That contact sets up a buddy system whereby committee members stay in contact with students, preparing them for life at IU with experience and advice. \nThe organization also answers any questions incoming students might have about life on campus or in America. It also tries its hardest to provide rides from the airport to campus if the international students do not have transportation, Memon said.\nThe group's staff advisor Sandra Britton said she feels the accomplishments of the association are something to be proud of, and she feels privileged to be a part of the organization. \n"The beauty of being an association's adviser is that it allows me to share in the successes of the group as the board members grow and develop as leaders while having fun and working together," Britton said in an e-mail. \nMemon said he hopes to see further student involvement in the group, both on campus and perhaps elsewhere.\n"As the academic year progresses, I hope to see more student organizations sending their representatives to IFA," Memon said in an em-ail. "Over the next couple of years I would like to see IFA spread through other college campuses across Indiana."\nBritton echoed those feelings, as she said she wants see the program grow further. \nShe said she hopes "that it continues to grow as an organization and be able to maintain its purpose as it aims to support and unite students from all nations"