FIUTS Blog

The group will present the traditional fisherman dance of Sōranbushi from Japan in an energetic and powerful performance. Only three weeks to go until the CulturalFest Performance Showcase, featuring eleven performing artists who will share cultures from around the world on the Meany Hall stage…

Dear Students and Community,

We would like to say a heartwarming happy holidays from all of us here at FIUTS! Our office will be closed Wednesday, December 23 to Sunday, January 3rd. We will be back, rested and ready to roll, to welcome our new students at the Winter Orientation on Monday, January 4th, 2016! It will be followed shortly by our first Wednesday Lunch of the new year on January 6th! …

Hi, my name is Changning Chen and I come from Chengdu, China, which is famous for spicy Sichuan food, like hot-pot. My classmate Chiaki and I were very lucky to be invited by Jon and Noreen to celebrate Thanksgiving together with their family. They picked us up on campus and drove us to Bellevue…

Normally, going north means going home. My last class ends and I join the daily exodus out of Seattle back to my house in Everett. Go past Everett, however, and my heart quickens. Suddenly I've crossed the Snohomish River, Cascades on my right, and adventure somewhere on the road ahead…

Each November, FIUTS connects students with hosts from around the Seattle area who open their homes to share Thanksgiving with UW international students. For many students, the opportunity to eat turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie with an American family or group of friends is a new and exciting cultural experience…

Each week, as a part of our Explore the World Program, FIUTS volunteers deliver a lesson about their home culture in local elementary schools! Check out Guan's experience in the classroom: painting masks with the children, teaching them about the Forbidden City, and, ultimately, what shocked her and what she would remember the most…

In the spirit of Thanksgiving service in the community, we wanted to re-post a fantastic blog from our international student and FIUTS facilitator Jiaqi (Kyki) Li to get you in the giving mood! Around this time last year, Kyki was a part of the FIUTS group that volunteered at Food Lifeline in Shoreline. FIUTS will be going to serve again this Saturday. Here's Kyki, recounting her meaningful experience…

We are excited to announce that we have received an awesome number of CulturalFest Performance Showcase applications. The deadline is today (get yours in!), and we start auditioning next week. But there is still time to apply to host a booth at CulturalFest Expo! Show off your country and culture! The FIUTS CulturalFest is the biggest multcultural student event on campus - and we invite you to be a part of it! …

We love our homestay hosts and are proud to have a big and diverse hosting community! FIUTS hosts come from around the world, live all over the Puget Sound region, and range from first-time volunteers to hosts who have been welcoming students to their homes for decades…

FIUTS Facilitators are student leaders from all over the worldwho welcome new international visitors, help organize events, and lead activities for hundreds of students each quarter. Read on to find out more about the FIUTS facilitator experience from Zehua (Wedward) Wei and join us today! …

FIUTS is very excited to have two new friendly faces in our office working on our education prorams, community outreach and CulturalFest. Manjot and Mary Kathleen are our work-studies -- say hi when you see them around! Here they are, introducing themselves to our community…

The FIUTS Homestay Program is committed to promoting culture exchange and cross-cultural understanding between our Puget Sound host community and our international students. Recently, we surveyed our students and asked them what they have learned about American culture during their time with an American family. Here are some of their responses…

Our Japanese orientation intern, Satomi, used her time at our FIUTS event Community BBQ to meet international students and find out more about her future friends. Read her interviews here and meet two of our students! …

FIUTS Facilitators are student leaders from all over the world who welcome new international visitors, help organize events, and lead activities for hundreds of students each quarter. Read on to find out more about the FIUTS facilitator experience from Terry Jung and join us today! ...

Welcome Week is just around the corner! FIUTS is very excited to introduce (at last) our practicum exchange intern, Holly, as well as two interns from Japan, Maaya and Satomi. All of them have been working hard and are absolutely instrumental in helping us put together our quickly approaching orientation weeks for incoming international students! Wave and say hello when you see them! Here they are, introducing themselves to our community…

In late August, students from various countries in the Caribbean were in Seattle for a program coordinated by FIUTS, in a contract with World Learning, called Youth Ambassador Program. We have been posting the students' reflections and experiences, and here's the final post by Adiel, an ambassador from Barbados…

For the past week and a half, students from various countries in the Caribbean were in Seattle for a program coordinated by FIUTS, in a contract with World Learning, called Youth Ambassador Program. We will be posting the students' reflection and experiences over the next week. Here's a post by Joashaha, an ambassador from Guyana…