International Cultural Service Program is a scholarship program for internation students at oregonstate.edu/ which trades the students a tuition discount for 80 hours of community service around the community. This program was founded at Oregon State University in 1983, and has since become so popular that other universities around Oregon have a similar program.
This program consists of a group of around 30 students from different countries around the world. These students are excellent speakers and presenters. They go around the community and talk about their country, culture, experiences, and a wide range of topics. They are basically embassadors of their country since they go to churches, retirement houses, university classes, high schools, clubs, primary schools, libraries, and other places. The students have a great variety of visual aids, crafts, cultural clothing, pictures, posters, games, among other things to share with their audience.
International students can’t qualify for most scholarships in the U.S., and this makes getting into this program very competitive. For people who want to get into this program, I can provide the following advice:
- Gather lots of items such as pictures, games, posters, show and tell crafts from your country
- Think of stories and experiences that you would share with people from different age groups: children, middle school, university, people at church, etc.
- Smile and be receptive to all kinds of questions. Sometimes you may be the first person from your country that the audience may have met. They may ask you questions that you may consider basic, or dumb. Just smile and be receptive
I was in ICSP at OSU in 2003-2007, and I’m a very lucky person! I got to learn a lot from people of different cultures. I have tried dishes from all over the world. They are a fun group of people to know 
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