Another friend for International students, ‘OU Cousins’

At OU, there is the OU Cousin program for international students. Every year about 900 international students connect with their American friends through this program.

The OU Cousins program was created in 1996. President and Mrs. David Boren created this program with the purpose of developing understanding, and friendship between U.S. students and international students at OU. By this program, students are matched to their “cousin” according to hobbies, majors, and countries of special interest. Each international or exchange student is matched with one American student and they are invited for monthly events. In addition, students can share their respective cultures with one American student through their daily American life.

The Student Life office hosts many events for OU Cousins like the ice cream social Kick-off event, Fall Festival, Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, and International Holiday Sweets Festival. Student Life office hosts not only big events, but they also make some time for daily life to cook together, play pool, go to the mall, and volunteer together. However, OU Cousins spend their own time together, not just for official events. International students and American students often keep in touch with each other to eat together, help with academic problems, and talk about their different cultures.

The Students Life office provides all events free of charge. Even though students cannot make up all of the OU Cousins events every year, the Student Life office tries to prepare for more opportunities of OU Cousins to participate in every event. Because of these kinds of efforts, OU Cousins can become a strong program at OU.

Quy Nguyen, a assistant director of Student Life, is said “OU Cousins program is a strong program for international students and American students. They can share their different cultures and also build a solid relationship beyond the culture.” He also adds that they try to make OU Cousins program be developed to connect with more students.

The OU Cousins BBQ Party will be held April 30 for all OU students. You can participate in this party that is free of charge. In addition, if you want to know more about OU Cousins, American students or international students can apply anytime on online. Your OU Cousin waits for you to be your friend.

Eve of Nations for International Students

Eve of Nations is the special festival for international students. The 39th Annual Eve of Nations was on April 3 at the Lloyd Noble Center. Many international students who are from various countries went to enjoy the party. The dinner table was prepared for invited international students. For the night, most of the students attended to this festival in a suit and dress.

International Advisory Committee (IAC) holds Eve of Nations. This year’s theme of Eve of Nations is Footprints: A Walk Around the World. This theme was selected with the hope that this program would give audiences a new and profound impression in their hearts. IAC hoped that audiences would break stereotypes, and get a new perspective. This festival was the product of the hard work of the twenty-seven international student organizations. Twenty-seven international student organizations showed their traditional dance. However, all performances reinterpreted their traditional culture with modern perspective. In addition, there was the international fashion showcase, so audiences could see various traditional clothes of many countries about fifty countries.

Eve of Nations started thirty-nine years ago. At first, IAC did not think about festivals for connecting with many international students. However, after they felt that there were a lot of international students in OU, they recognized they needed a special festival to make a bond with each other. This festival was not big, but IAC made this festival organized, and more splendid. Currently, they are trying to find many sponsors for this festival.

Sarah Shutts, President of International Advisory Committee said “Eve of Nations is one of the most elegant and spectacular events celebrating the rich cultures of the world that can be found in the state of Oklahoma. If is a reflection of the cooperation of our international students and our American students at OU.” She also added that many different perspectives, thoughts, and ideas went into the creation of the magical evening.

IAC hosts Eve of Nations every spring semester. Even Though Eve of Nations has ended, IAC hosts other events like International Awareness, and International Bazaar. So if you want to join other events, you can do without any complicated progress. You can get more information about other international events on the IAC website.