TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) —Troy University has a program where international and American students can learn from one another.

Conversation Partners is a program where international students are partnered with domestic students to learn about the American culture.

“International students are desperate to meet students from America,” said the Director of the English as a Second Language (ESL) Department, Lance Noe. “They want to meet their peers and they want to know about the American culture, they want to know what American students are like.”

Conversation Partners is not a tutoring program. Instead, it’s a program meant to bring people together.

“It’s mostly a cultural exchange,” Noe explained. “We want the international students to meet an American friend and we want the Americans to have an international friends, so it’s more of a friendship connection.”

Even though Conversation Partners is about helping international students learn about the American culture, Noe believes American students can also benefit from the program.

“The biggest thing that I think comes out of it is that students here at TROY, many of them will become friends with an international person, learn about that culture, and they do study abroad,” Noe said.

Students that are interested in joining the Conversation Partners program, should email Marcus Frame at mframe@troy.edu.

To keep up with the ESL Department this semester, people can follow them on Instagram and TikTok @troyuniversity_int.