“After I unpacked my bags, I introduced myself to the girl across the hall from me. We instantly hit it off. It felt like we’d been friends for years. We stuck together throughout orientation and dinner. At dinner we made another great friend and instantly became the closest trio. That night, the three of us huddled in my room, sharing our life-stories and getting to know one another on a personal level. My anxiety about meeting others evaporated once I realized there were tons of amazing, new people to meet.” –Carly B., Summer ‘24 CPP
“It’s crazy how much can happen in a few minutes. As soon as I arrived and said goodbye to my parents I felt a sense of loneliness because I was about to embark on a two week course all by myself but then all of a sudden I find myself meeting all new people instantly. I walked downstairs and people smiled, I stopped outside and people would wave, and even just going back to my room it was like there was always someone there greeting me and making me feel welcome. It was exciting meeting everyone although it was nerve racking at first, it was impossible for you to feel lonely.” –Andrew G., Summer ‘24 CPP
“I met the first 2 of the best friends at orientation, we were walking back from the hall and going around the campus when I found out that one of them could speak Chinese. We quickly started a conversation and developed our friendship. We were able to spend the 2 weeks together and have a great time, it was great to meet new friends and be able to meet different people.” –Jiayang Y., Summer ‘24 CPP
“This was my first solo flight. I traveled to Chicago from Dallas by myself for the first time. I met my first friend at the CPP during the check in. It was very coincidental that we were both Chinese; we lived in the same city, Shanghai, same area, and even the same street. We both studied in the same middle school in Shanghai before. We had never met before, but we met at the CPP.” –Haosi G., Summer ‘24 CPP
“After I set up my room and my mom left, I took it upon myself to introduce myself to a group of girls talking in the hallway. As more girls joined us, we moved into the common area of our floor. Eventually, almost the whole floor of girls was going around introducing themselves to each other. Although it was hard being at a new experience on my own, everyone was so accepting and excited to meet each other which helped me adapt to the environment and ultimately meet such nice and interesting people.” –Sydney L., Summer ‘24 CPP
“As I was unpacking in my room, I heard talking outside and stepped out there to see what was going on. It was a large group of other students introducing themselves and getting to know one another. I instinctively joined in as it was all the other people in my hall. We continued talking for about ten minutes in the hallway before relocating to our lounge where we put together a group chat and continued getting to know each other. These conversations established the friendships we utilized for the rest of the program, making nearly our entire hallway (and eventually floor) one big friend group.” Will R., Summer ‘24 CPP
“I never would’ve thought that I would become as close with someone as I did through CPP, my time there was memorable and will hopefully have made lasting friendships. When I got to orientation on the first day I was so nervous. Nervous to meet new people and see the campus that I thought be traveling for the next couple of weeks. Little did I know there was nothing to be nervous about because as soon as I got there I met lots of new people all of which were super welcoming and nice. I was introduced to the students in class and got to know each of them well. I met this girl who was in my class and seemed really nice. we got to know each other better and learned almost everything about each other. It was so fun to get to know her better and to be have now become super close.” –Nora H., Summer ‘24 CPP
“After a 13-hour flight, I was too excited to feel jetlagged. While waiting in line for check-in at Plex, I started meeting people from all over the place—Minnesota, Michigan, and even Chicago. I met my best friend through her mom, who was chatting vibrantly behind me. Despite my nervousness, I turned around to say hi. Although we took different courses, we ended up being like the Men in Black for two weeks. Through her RA group, I met another local who was living in Tokyo, and together we formed the most diverse trio. We explored Evanston and the campus together, walking and talking into the first night, illuminated by fireflies. Simple memories like these are some of my favorites.” –Hsinyu W., Summer ‘24 CPP
“I took the program about psychology and we get to be involved in the virtual child program. During the first day of class, Professor Alissa Chung asked all students to stand up and introduce themselves. To be honest, I am always nervous about introducing myself and it’s not my thing to speak up in front of the whole class. However the atmosphere of the class made me feel more comfortable in this unfamiliar environment. After getting to know more about each other, we dived in into the lecture and I got to learn some real stuff on the first day!” –Suri X., Summer ‘24 CPP
“I was looking for the laundry room and ran into one of my classmates who was also looking for the laundry room! We exchanged contact information and spent most of the program together.” –Hannah G., Summer ‘24 CPP
“Friend groups form pretty quick here but never be afraid to just up and join one, in fact I’d recommend you’d talk to everyone but stick to a main group so you get close with them. I personally bounced around a bit and thus feel like I missed out on a deeper connection with some but I got to meet and stay in touch with so many interesting people and many were kind enough to still invite me on various outings despite the fact that I was often not with them, I got really lucky there 🙂 One time a friend got a reservation at a steak house and included a spot for me and forgot to actually tell me! What made it funnier is I’m actually vegetarian and they were going to a steakhouse 😛 I went regardless and it was a ton of fun! Go out on a limb! Try something new! You won’t get this opportunity again. Goethe once said, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘Treat a man as he is and you make him worse. Treat a man as he could be and you make him as he should be.'” –Ved J., Summer ‘24 CPP