DeKALB – Network of Nations is a non-profit religious organization that works with international students at NIU to help them adjust to life in the U.S.
Network of Nations has worked with NIU in DeKalb for 25 years, as NIU noticed a growing number of international students.
“The university had seen that there were an influx of international students and they wanted to have friendship programs,” said Lisa Dietrich, the executive director of the Network of Nations. “It morphed from one-on-ones with individuals within the community to growing much bigger.”
The program operates on volunteer work from people who live in the area and donations from local churches. Network of Nations takes this money and uses it to provide meals every Friday, host food pantries, pick up students from the airport and generally support international students.
While 17 affiliated Christian churches fund the program, students do not have to be Christian to be part of it.
“It has nothing to do with politics, it just has to do with a community of DeKalb and DeKalb County kind people,” Dietrich said.
Dietrich also stressed the strength of their community bonds.
“Our community members have gone to China and India for weddings. They have been at births. They’re at holidays cross-culturally. They’re at funerals,” Dietrich said.
Derrek Dykema, a former NIU student who now volunteers for the Network of Nations, praised the program for creating a welcoming space for international students.
“It gives a real sense of community,” Dykema said. “Kind of like a home away from home.”
One NIU student who is helped by the program is Johnson Kwame Wor, who is currently in his fourth year in the doctoral program for art and design education and is originally from Ghana.
“I came at a time when the winter was at its peak,” Wor said. “So I was fighting a lot of stuff, you know, cultural shock, the weather and so many other things. And the Network of Nations provided that warmth — that embrace that enabled me to settle.”
