Program partnership bridges generational and language gap through storytelling

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State partnership bridging generations and culture is helping multilingual international students develop the communication, social and intercultural skills they need for academic success and career readiness.

By pairing international students who are preparing to study at an American university in the Penn State Intensive English Communication Program (IECP) with volunteers from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Penn State, which is part of Penn State Outreach, the initiative turned classroom learning into real-world connection.

During eight weeks, a class of students in the ICEP course “Oral History and Digital Storytelling” partnered with 13 OLLI volunteers — community members aged 50 or better — to share stories, build relationships and create digital storytelling projects with the support of Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology.

Through the collaboration, students practiced academic English in authentic settings, learning to communicate across cultural and generational differences while developing the social confidence and intercultural awareness central to IECP’s curriculum and essential for success in the classroom and beyond.

"The interaction with students had more positives than I could have imagined,” said OLLI member Barbara Carlson. “Where else would an 80- and a 20-year-old from such diverse cultures have the opportunity to learn from each other so openly, safely and with equal respect. I loved every moment."

Bringing groups like this together was the plan when IECP Teaching Professor Nikki Mattson developed the course, she said. Since 1976, IECP has been Penn State’s premier intensive English program, offering courses in academic English to prepare international students for the expectations of undergraduate and graduate studies at an American university. Her goal for this course was to provide students with an opportunity to share meaningful stories with others in a real-life setting.

“As a non-credit academic unit, we are uniquely positioned to be responsive to emerging student needs. Being able to tell your own story to different audiences has become essential academically and professionally, so I built this course to give students the tools and skills to do that well,” Mattson said.

Mattson got the idea to partner with OLLI after accompanying the Penn State Global float in the Penn State Homecoming Parade last fall, which was positioned directly in front of the OLLI float.

“My students were drawn to them. I kept having to tell them to get going because they were back there with the OLLI group having a great time,” Mattson said. “So, I thought this was a good fit for this class.”

That natural connection carried over to the classroom setting. By working with their OLLI partners in class, the students gained valuable communications skills, such as how to conduct interviews, ask open-ended questions and how to develop a digital story. By the time the final projects were presented, it was obvious to Mattson that the intergenerational interactions had blossomed into something more, she said.

“The project became more than just language practice — it became about finding ways to connect and understand each other across generational, cultural and personal differences. Some IECP students and their OLLI partners even met outside of class and plan to keep in touch. For our international students, that kind of community connection is rare and valuable,” Mattson said.

As the students presented their final projects, organizers said the impact of the connection was obvious from the fist bumps, high-fives and hugs that were shared between the groups. A few OLLI members even shed a tear, while the students expressed gratitude for the opportunity to learn from their elders.

“I’m really impacted from the stories our partners shared, and also I’m going to memorize all the advice that I got from my partners,” said Minha Kim, an IECP student from South Korea who plans to continue to study digital marketing.

Those results fit well with IECP’s goals to provide a comprehensive curriculum that provides opportunities to make connections in the Penn State community, according to Di Liang, interim director of IECP.

“The IECP curriculum is intentionally designed to provide our multilingual students not only with academic English instruction, but also with opportunities to develop the social skills and intercultural awareness essential for academic success and career readiness,” Liang said. “At IECP, we believe that meaningful growth happens through real communication with real people for real purposes. In this sense, the OLLI partnership wasn’t a supplement to the curriculum, it was the curriculum.”

For OLLI at Penn State members, the intergenerational connection that was developed is something that will have an impact on them for far longer than the eight weeks shared in the classroom, said Kathy Maxwell of OLLI.

“Working with my team on this project helped me as much as, hopefully, it helped them,” Maxwell said. “I learned about their families, their culture, their views about this country, their aspirations and so much more. The OLLI and IECP relationship worked seamlessly, and I truly hope this connection continues in the future.”

Learn more about educational and volunteer opportunities on the OLLI at Penn State website.