How was iBuddy established at Seton Hall?
Fourth-year doctoral students, Jiwon Yoo, and Beyza Sinan in the Counseling Psychology Student Association founded the International Buddy Program, or iBuddy in 2016. They saw a need for more support for international students at Seton Hall.
Yoo and her colleagues see the iBuddy program as a way to have meaningful cross-cultural connections where mutual learning and sharing can occur. Yoo describes the goals and intent of the iBuddy program as a go-to place for multicultural learning. “It is great to learn that there are many domestic students who genuinely enjoy interacting with international students and they were able to connect with them better because of their own cultural adjustment experiences, study abroad experiences, cross-cultural interests, and etc. At the same time, International students also benefited greatly from the program by learning about the American culture by social interactions, practicing English, and openly sharing cultural differences with their buddies.”