EXCHANGE fosters forever-friends

Chris Pond

As a facilitator for FIUTS I lead events for international students. It's my job to foster connections and get along with everyone. But this one summer there came a particular group of students from Japan that for whatever reason I got along with especially well. They were here for only three weeks, and I was scheduled to see them just six times in total. It ended up being a lot more than six times.
Anywhere they wanted to go we went together. We walked around Green Lake, went to a cat cafe, hiked through the Arboretum, and even got drinks at a cocktail bar in Ballard. When it finally came time for them to depart, we promised to meet each other again. And we kept that promise when I was invited to a wedding in Japan and they repaid me the favor and took me all around to see all that we could in my short time there. 
To this day I keep in touch with them and I intend to visit them again and many times more. I count them among my dearest friends--we wouldn't have met if it wasn't for FIUTS.

Chris Pond | University of Washington, Political Science, 2023; Bellevue College, Computer Science 2023-

Chris with FIUTS Community Engagement Exchange Fellow Bachir Ousmane at FIUTS CulturalFest, Feb 2024.