When packaging senior Jiaming Yuan first came to MSU from China, it was difficult for him to go about his daily life and adjust to a different culture. It wasn’t until he joined Bridges International that coping with the new environment became easier for him.
“I still remember my freshman year being really rough for me,” Yuan said. “At this time, my English was so broken, it was super hard for me to order food.”
Bridges International is a nationwide organization focused on serving international students, helping them with social networking and also providing them with spiritual resources. Bridges has a close partnership with the student organization Cru, which is a primarily Christian group.
Yuan said one of the areas that Bridges helped him with was pairing him up with an American family where he got to experience Thanksgiving for the first time.
“It was just a great experience,” Yuan said, who is now part of the student leadership team at Bridges.
Bridges staff advisor Stuart Hall said one other way the organization helps students is through their English language partner program, where they pair up an American student with an international student.
Hall said it’s one way for international and American students to interact and learn more about each other’s cultures.
“It’s a way to help get students connected because I know that’s one of the difficulties that a lot of international students have as to ‘How do I make American friends?’” Hall said.
He said the group also helps students in other smaller ways, like giving them a ride to Meijer, helping them figure out how to get a driver’s license or buy a car.
Yuan said as a student leader at Bridges, he gets to help the other six student leaders plan for the organization’s bi-weekly meetings.
Hall said the bi-weekly meeting, located in room 222 in Erickson Hall, usually consists of a guided discussion about a specific topic or around a short video they show the students.
Yuan said at one of the meetings, dubbed “culture corner,” the students discussed the top ten most confusing American words or idioms for international students, like “shotgun.”
“It’s ... fun and they (the international students) need those tips and background information,” he said.
Hall said other than spreading the word through Sparticipation and the International Student Resource Fair during orientation, they rely on word of mouth.
Mechanical engineering junior Shiyao Liu, who is also a student leader, said he tries to talk to people at the Engineering Building during study breaks to introduce them to the group.
Liu said sometimes students shy away from the organization when they hear that one service they offer is providing students with a spiritual resource, but spiritual guidance is not the organization’s only goal.
