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American Adventure Groups
What is an American Adventure Group?
It's a small group of American volunteers (usually 3-10 adults, or 2-5 families) who lead a similar-sized group of International Students through a series of five fun group cultural activities (what we call "Adventures") over the course of a semester.
What is the purpose?
We want to show Christ's love and hospitality to the visiting students, and to create opportunity for cultural exchange. The groups also provide a context in which students can be invited into deeper opportunities (offered by ISI and others) for exploring the Christian faith and world view, which is very new and unfamiliar to many of them. From the students' perspective, the purpose of the group is simply to experience authentic American culture, and to form friendships with Americans.
What are the Adventures?
They are fun group activities that enable the internationals to experience, first-hand, different aspects of American culture. We have provided a list of some suggested Adventures below. A group can also invent its own Adventures within program guidelines, based on interests within the group. Each of the five Adventures should highlight a different aspect of American culture. The Adventures may not sound all that adventurous for Americans - they sound more like normal life to us. But for students from very different cultures, the real adventure is to experience first-hand some slices of normal American life, as guided by truly local Americans. It's usually a lot of fun (and educational) to interact with internationals in these everyday life contexts.
What are the responsibilities of the Americans in the group?
The Americans are tasked with working together to select, plan and carry out five of the American Adventures with a group of international college students who are assigned to them. The first group gathering (approx. 2 hours) is held without the internationals - to give the Americans (with the guidance of an ISI staff person) a chance to organize, choose their activities, and divide the responsibilities for carrying them out. Such responsibilities include making reservations (if needed), determining times, locations and costs, communicating with students, organizing transportation, etc. Students are told to expect that they will cover their own individual costs associated with the activities.
Where do we find the international students?
ISI and its campus partners will take care of that. We make these opportunities known to the international students on various Triad campuses, and sign them up to participate. We will then group the students together and match each student group with an American group.
How do we get started?
Feel free to share this Web site with others until you find a group of at least 3 adults or 2 families who are interested (even if they aren’t yet ready to commit). Then contact your ISI representative, and let him or her know that you’ve got a potential group. We can talk with them individually, or even schedule a brief informational session, for them to decide if they want to proceed.
Contact: Jesse Wesselink | 336-510-2326
Is there a cost?
The individual cost of activities will depend on the activity. Each member of the group is usually expected to cover their individual expenses (such as tickets, bus fare, etc), and to share in the common expenses (such as food). Students are generally expected to cover their own individual expenses as well. Your group may wish to handle all these costs differently - that's up to you and your group to decide.
ISI does not charge any fee for this program. As a matter of prayer, we want to point out that ISI does incur cost for staff and resources. Each of our staff rely on generous voluntary giving from churches and individuals. The ISI staff as a whole is currently under-funded, but for an exciting reason. God has recently led two much-needed new workers to join the ISI staff full-time - something we have been praying for over the last several years. These new staff members are still working to raise their financial support. This effort is critical, since there are numerous important tasks that are carried out by ISI staff, without which this program & ministry would not continue forward. These tasks include penetrating the universities, promoting ISI programs and events to students, coordinating group match-ups, recruiting, training and coordinating volunteers, creating follow-up opportunities and events for students, and more. ISI staff are earnestly and prayerfully seeking joyful givers to become financial partners with us. We would appreciate if you would pray with us (perhaps even as you're reading this), that God will lead us to those joyful and generous financial partners.
Suggested American Adventures
(Pick Five or Suggest Your Own)
Plan a progressive dinner highlighting various classic American foods at different American homes over the course of an evening.
American Meal Preparation
Prepare an entire classic American meal as a group (like meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salad and dessert). As simple as it sounds, this has been a big hit in the past.
International Meal Preparation
Have one or more students take the lead in preparing an entire meal from their culture as a group. There may be some shopping needed ahead of time at an ethnic food market.
Public Transit Excursion
Plan a route from a starting point (near one of the universities) by public transit (bus system), to go out to eat, or to a movie, a mall, etc, and then back again. Try to plan the route so that it includes a connection at the bus depot, so they can experience that as well. This is a good icebreaker event - because it gives a greater sense of mobility to any newly-arrived students in the group.
Map Navigation Challenge
Provide the students with a map and a list of three or four locations (in different parts of the city) you plan to visit. Perhaps eat dinner at one stop, ice cream for dessert at another, etc. Let the students use the map to get you to the location as you drive. They can only ask "yes" and "no" questions of the guides.
Local (or regional) Shopping
Visit popular stores or malls in the city or region.
Attend Local Sporting Event
Attend a sporting event as a group (high school, college or professional). Choose a major American sport that they might not know much about, and explain the game as you watch it.
Local Hike
Go hiking as a group on a nearby trail or mountain (like Hanging Rock State Park).
Overnight Camping Trip
Go camping overnight at a nearby state park (such as Hanging Rock), and then do some hiking or other activities the next day.
Indoor Amusement Activity
Roller skating, ice skating, bowling, laser tag, etc.
Eating Out
Eat at a popular local restaurant.
Overnight Camping
Go on an overnight camping trip to a nearby campground or state park - tents and sleeping bags. Don't forget the s'mores!
Seasonal Activity
Fall: Carve Pumpkins
Winter: Tour Christmas lights or go see a Christmas program
Spring: Color Easter eggs
Board Game Night
Spend an evening playing your favorite American board games or card games.
Drive-in Movie
Unheard of in many countries – there is one in Eden, NC (edendrivein.com).
