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• New Faces at the Crossroads: The World in Central Indiana

Volunteer Opportunities

The IVLP puts international relations into the hands of American citizens, offering opportunities to build relations.  We invite you to become a Citizen Diplomat and make real connections with emerging international leaders. ICI needs volunteers to give each visitor the opportunity to explore the characteristics of our city as widely and deeply as time and interests permit.  There are two ways for you to participate in the IVLP: 

• Become a Professional Resource
• Become a Hospitality Volunteer

With your involvement, Citizen Diplomacy is not just a federal government function reserved only for heads of state; it is a vital activity conducted in our own community each time you host a visitor from another country.

“I was very pleased (with the home hospitality) and I didn’t feel foreign or stranger in the house among people there, they were very friendly all of them, which is very difficulty to find such number of people acting this way. … Really I felt at the home hospitality that I am with very friendly people who can share love and respect with others despite their colour, religion or races.”

—Adla Mohammed Ragab (Egypt)

By becoming a hospitality volunteer, you introduce someone to Hoosier Hospitality.  All it takes is offering an opportunity for hospitality in your home, at a local restaurant or at a baseball game.  By opening your home—and heart—to visiting educational, governmental or business leaders, you promote the kind of hospitality and friendliness Indiana is known for worldwide. 

As a hospitality volunteer, you have the opportunity to:

• meet one-on-one with visitors from around the world
• provide an in-depth look at American culture by inviting visitors to join you and your family or friends
• share everything from opinions about politics to recipes for glazed carrots
• learn about another culture, and
• change the world, “one handshake at a time.”

Our visitors have consistently found that the hospitality experience is among the most rewarding aspects of their programs.  Many have voiced a tremendous appreciation for the opportunity to experience everyday life first hand from the inside of a US American household, dining with real Americans or at a little league game!

When arranging the hospitality experience, ICI tries to match the visitor and the volunteer host via some common interest areas; i.e., the hosts have lived in the visitor's country, speak a common language, have mutual professional interests, or are interested in the same kind of cultural activities.