UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Thirty-five students and visiting scholars from across Penn State came together this fall for a pilot Intercultural Virtual Exchange (IVE) that used student-led dialogue as a means of further developing intercultural communication skills and global understanding.
Participants included students studying English as an additional language in the College of the Liberal Arts’ Intensive English Communication Program (IECP), visiting scholars in the College of Education’s ExCEL Program, and undergraduate students from Penn State Abington. Participants represented a wide range of national and cultural backgrounds including the United States, Saudi Arabia, China, Kuwait, Mexico, Kazakhstan, India, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Pakistan, South Korea and Vietnam.
The initiative was co-coordinated by Nikki Mattson, teaching professor of applied linguistics and coordinator of strategic initiatives for the IECP, and Olga A. Moskaleva, regional global engagement coordinator for Penn State Global. For IECP students, the exchange was embedded in a non-credit intercultural communication course taught by Mattson, while for ExCEL scholars, participation served as a volunteer global engagement and leadership opportunity.
Joseph Mouendi, a second-year industrial engineering student at Penn State Abington, found the program to be “very insightful.”
“I learned about numerous cultures and was able to broaden my perspective thanks to it,” Mouendi said. “I was also able to practice my communication and personal skills. As someone who was also learning English like IECP students, I think that getting these small exchanges with fluent English speakers is very helpful for learning.”
Virtual exchange participants met live on Zoom in small groups across three sessions, using shared discussion guides to shape conversation and manage turn-taking.
As the exchange progressed, conversations moved from introductions and personal background stories to an exploration of food, celebrations, art and fashion as expressions of cultural values, identity and community. Group members frequently used images, examples and personal experiences to ground discussion in everyday life.
“The structure was intentional, but the conversations belonged to the students and scholars,” Mattson said. “They took responsibility for listening, clarifying meaning and navigating difference together. That ownership and negotiation is where the learning happened.”
Tiffany Zheng, a second-year management information systems student at Penn State Abington, said the program gave her the opportunity to practice active listening.
“I thought just being able to hear another story from mine is beneficial for me to know that there’s another way of living,” Zheng said. “Active listening and open-mindedness helped me a lot with getting to absorb the story of someone else.”
Each session also included whole-group report-outs, during which representatives shared insights from their conversations. Short reflections collected throughout the exchange captured moments of challenge, connection and growth.
Before participating, many participants anticipated challenges common to online intercultural communication such as language barriers, accents, pacing and uncertainty about how to interpret silence or tone. However, post-exchange responses revealed that those concerns often gave way to confidence.
Laurence Orji, a third-year international student majoring in computer science at Penn State Abington, said connections emerged among group members through shared experiences.
“I was describing jollof rice to the group and a classmate noted that it was similar to Saudi Arabian kabsa,” Orji said. “We literally built a connection over rice.”
María Avila, an international IECP student from Mexico, said the exchange helped her grow more confident communicating across cultures, a sentiment shared by many IECP participants.
“I was able to practice my communication skills and open my mind to different cultures, backgrounds, and traditions,” Avila said. “Understanding different accents and ways of expressing ideas helped me communicate more clearly and respectfully.”
The program concluded with the awarding of certificates to students who completed all sessions and preparation tasks. Overall feedback on the pilot was positive, with participants describing the experience as engaging, meaningful and different from typical coursework.
Moskaleva said the project demonstrates how global learning can be built across Penn State campuses through virtual exchange that is grounded in intentional design and student agency. For Mattson, the synchronous, student-led format was central to its impact.
“When students are trusted to navigate difference themselves, they don’t just learn about intercultural communication — they practice it,” Mattson said.