In between final exams, papers and graduate school applications, she plans on spending a lot of time with the people she’s begun to consider family — Dewitt, Mich., residents Linda and Craig Kahler and their children, Audrey and Adam, a local family who has taken her under their wing.

For almost three years, Sun and the Kahler family have been a part of the International Friendship Program, which offers interested international students and Greater Lansing residents the chance to pair up and spend time together during the students’ time in the U.S.

In the minds of many participants and university experts, the program gives international students a broader glimpse of living in Greater Lansing while giving community members a new perspective on what it means to have culture.

“There’s a whole big world out there that’s very similar and yet very distinctly different from the U.S.,” Craig Kahler said. “It was really enlightening for us.”

Crossing boundaries
The program’s name has changed throughout the years, but in essence the International Friendship Program has been run through the university’s Community Volunteers for International Programs, or CVIP, for most of its 50-year lifespan, program chair Pam Sievers said.

About 120 students and scholars currently are enrolled in the program and about half of these participants began this fall.

Sievers said all residents of the local area and international students are welcome to submit applications to participate.

The general expectation for spending time together is about once a month, but it’s flexible depending on student and volunteer schedules, Sievers said. Possible activities include sharing holiday celebrations, going to community events, such as Silver Bells in the City and cooking cultural meals together.

Many of the international students and residents, such as Sun and the Kahlers, choose to go beyond this expectation.

Linda Kahler said she often would create a list of family events and send it to Sun, giving her the option to come to ones that fit her schedule. The family also took Sun and her mother to Traverse City, Mich., last Sunmer, where they were surprised to see Sun’s mother walk around picking fruit wearing heels and a dressy skirt.

After growing up as an only child and spending most of her school years in boarding schools, Sun was in for a big surprise when she started spending time with the Kahlers.

“I was always away from home since I was little, and by getting involved in a family, I feel so loved and not alone,” Sun said.

Sievers said the most important part of the program isn’t to attend expensive or fancy events all the time but for families to be there for the student and learn from them.

Expanding horizons
As a Fulbright scholar from Russia, Marina Lychaeva had never experienced Thanksgiving or many of the traditions some Americans think of as second nature.

But now that she’s spending time here, she plans on learning as much as she can through the International Friendship Program.

Lychaeva, who is participating in the program with Williamston, Mich., resident and MSU employee Cindy Walters, just started with the program this fall and already has taken part in several activities, including cooking traditional Russian meals with the Walter family and putting up Christmas decorations.

“If I didn’t have this chance, I wouldn’t have an opportunity to see aspects of real (American) life,” she said. “I really appreciate that they can share my culture too.”

Walters has been involved with several students in the program and said engaging someone from another country in day-to-day experiences offers a new perspective.

“The things that you think are simple and every day to you are not to someone who’s not from here,” Walters said. “You see things with new eyes.”

With an expanding population of international students at MSU, some hope community members can fill the gap between international students and volunteers in the program.

According to the Office for International Students and Scholars, or OISS, statistics report for 2011, 5,898 students from foreign countries are enrolled at MSU in undergraduate, graduate or non-degree programs — a number that nearly doubles the amount of 10 years ago, OISS Director Peter Briggs said.

If more promotion was done among MSU’s growing population of international students, Briggs said a large number of them would be interested in taking part — the only roadblock for the program’s expansion is the number of community volunteers.

“We hope that the community embraces it more. … But it’ll still be a challenge to keep up with the population that MSU has with international students right now,” Briggs said.

A lasting relationship
Although she soon will finish up her time at MSU, Sun said she doesn’t plan on letting her international friends go.

Linda Kahler said the family plans on keeping in touch with Sun through Skype and email, and Audrey Kahler is set on visiting Sun in her native country.

Sievers said the choice to continue friendships is not uncommon among participants, and said that aspect helps to prove the program’s success.

“It’s a program you don’t need to invest a lot of yourself in to benefit greatly,” Sievers said. “It’s such a rewarding program. … You recognize the world is a lot bigger than the East Lansing community.”