The Students Crossing Borders living learning community brought together students from all over the world to live together, sharing their cultures and forming lifelong friendships. Alumni of the program recently gathered for a reunion weekend to celebrate 10 years since they met in Middlebrook Hall.

“I feel like I just can’t overestimate the impact Students Crossing Borders had on my college experience,” said Alex Walters, who helped organize the reunion. “It was easily the most impactful aspect of my student experience.”

Walters grew up in Wisconsin but was interested in learning about other parts of the world. Students Crossing Borders was part of why she chose the University of Minnesota.

She lived in Students Crossing Borders for her freshman year and the fall of her sophomore year, before spending a semester in Costa Rica. She said it gave her the confidence to apply for a fellowship to do research in Cameroon the summer after her junior year. After graduation, she worked for the Peace Corps in Gambia, helping with permagardening and reforestation.

“For me, it’s really easy to see the arc between all those things,” Walters said.

Living in Students Crossing Borders gave Walters a broader picture of the world, she said.

“A lot of what I ended up doing in my personal time was spending time with people that were from the U.S., but also so many that weren’t,” Walters said. “That just changes your outlook and changes where you see yourself.”

Walters also credits living in Students Crossing Borders with making her more comfortable interacting with people who are different from her.

“Some of it is being able to talk to someone and show interest in their background without making them feel that that’s all I see in them, is that they have a different background than me,” she said. “I feel like I can show my interest respectfully and genuinely without making that person only be an international person.”

Hussain Imtiaz Chowdhury was an international student from Bangladesh who was randomly placed into Students Crossing Borders. He enjoyed it so much that he ended up becoming a community adviser for the next three years.

“I made a lot of life-long friends from all over the globe,” Chowdhury said. “I still keep in touch with them to this day.”

Chowdhury flew in from Connecticut to attend the reunion.

“It brought special memories as I have not traveled back to Minneapolis since I moved to the East Coast in 2016,” he said. “It was very emotional to visit the places where I spent time with close friends. Getting to see the familiar faces again and how they have grown, and some even starting their own families, was something incredible.”