News & Publicity

Spirit of welcome reigns on their picnic
Church group hosts international students at RPI in program that started in 1985

By ERIKA GROFF, Special to the Times Union
First published: Wednesday, August 31, 2005

BRUNSWICK -- "Welcome International RPI Students from around the globe!" said the monitors in the church sanctuary. And so they came.

More than 50 international students gathered over the weekend at Brunswick Church to enjoy an American picnic and to be welcomed to the Capital Region. It was part of their orientation as new students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The students from 16 countries -- including New Guinea, Jordan, India and China -- came here to study. But on Saturday they kicked off the school year by standing in line for pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon and ice cream. There were vegetarian entrees, too, and goodies like pudding, which was a new food to 27-year-old Binay Kumar Singh of eastern India.

"I wish I had a bigger stomach," he said, his plate filled with food.

Anubha Goyal, a graduate student working on her Ph.D. in material sciences at RPI, said she wasn't expecting America to be like this.

"You think of New York skyscrapers -- not Troy," she said. "Troy is like a normal Indian village."

Scooping out ice cream for eager students, Mark Kuo, 26, was a tall Taiwanese volunteer who stood out. How did he get so tall? "American cheese," he confessed.

Next to him, Jianhui Tian, in his second year in the physics department, was on a different mission. The 24-year-old joked that he was looking for an American wife. He explained that some Chinese males might return home, looking for wives arranged by their families because of the shortage of women in their home country.

After dinner, the students raced to meet others, getting others to sign their names as part of a getting-to-know-you game that had blank signature lines for "Comes from a country where Cricket is a popular game," "Speaks three or more languages," and "Has received three or more traffic tickets."

Later, they folded their picnic chairs outside and gathered in the church sanctuary to sing "La Bamba," John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Edelweiss."

Finally, they were introduced to Horizons, a Christian not-for-profit organization that matches American families with international students and sponsors group activities like apple picking, Bible studies, hiking in the Adirondacks and holiday dinners in American homes.

Horizons had its first welcome dinner at Brunswick at 1985, according to Mark Harkness, area director of the program.

"Most students that come will have been in the country for less than two weeks. This is their very first few days here, and this picnic is a big part of it," he said.

He said he hopes the picnic will provide an opportunity for the international students to connect with American families and individuals, referred to as "friendship partners."

William Peak, 81, lives in Brunswick. This is his 16th year as a friendship partner.

"I like the freshness of these eager students, but I also help them with lonely moments," he said. "They think I'm wise."

His business card says "Grandpa." As such, Peak takes his students to local farms to pick fresh fruit and vegetables, shows them how to can food, and make jelly and cake.

He's careful not to push his beliefs on them, however.

"The first thing I do is, I sit them down and tell them, 'My role is not to get you to be a Christian but to be your friend,' " he said.

If the students are lacking a mother figure here, they can count on Jane Havis. As RPI's assistant dean of students and director of international services for students and scholars, she calls herself Mother Jane.

"What I want them to gather out of all of this is to feel comfortable," she said. "When I see them talking or laughing, then I feel good."

For more information on Horizons, log on to http://www.horizons-int.org