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Multi Racial Unity Living Experience - Intercultural Aide Program

Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.

Paolo Freire

 Welcome to MRULE-ICA



The MRULE-ICA PROGRAM is a grassroots learning experience open to all students. We are dedicated to building inclusive and socially engaged community across our vast differences. OUR VISION is to see a university campus in which students are educated using a globally integrated curriculum and intercultural engagement is valued and practiced on a daily basis.

 

 

We are guided by a MISSION to to help with students transitions to MSU academically, personally and socially through BUILDING VIBRANT COMMUNITY ACROSS OUR DIFFERENCES.

 

 

Be a Part of the Community

We offer various OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENGAGED LEARNING where student can simultaneously cross cultural boundaries and develop critical understanding of the world. Learn more about them below:

  • Build diverse community

    Each week, we meet to talk about social issues and current events, bringing questions about the past and the future together in the present. Our student leaders, intercultural aides (ICAs), facilitate conversations that matter. We talk about things like race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, ability, nationality, language…all the things that make us who we are and determine the opportunities and freedoms afforded to us or not.

     

  • Develop genuine relationships

    As a student, our Intercultural Aides (ICAs) are here to support you. One of the ways they do that is by connecting with you outside of the RTD space. These connections can happen in the hallway, at the cafe, or other impromptu, yet meaningful moments. And these moments make a difference. Take it from a resident: 

    To me, the best thing that my ICA has done was come to my door when she noticed I stopped going to RTD. I was having a hard time with some classes and was starting to get sick, so she came to my room to check in on me and encouraged me to go to RTD. Honestly, if she hadn't done that I would likely have stopped going, as I would have flet that my spontaneous reappearance would be disruptive. I'm so grateful she did this for me.

     

  • Engage in local service trips

    This is what we call "matching our deeds with our words." Dialogue is, of course, a form of social action, but this is our chance to apply what we say and learn in the RTD space to real communities in service alongside others in the Greater Lansing, Metro Detroit, and other areas. 

    Don't miss out! Ask your ICA when the next service experience will be. 

     

  • Connect to campus opportunities

    We could’t do the hard work of building vibrant and inclusive communities without our many campus partners. On any given day, you’ll see us working side by side with our colleagues in Residence Education and Housing Services (REHS), the Neighborhood Student Success Collaborative (NSSC), the Center for Integrative Studies, MSU Libraries, and others. These collaborations help extend our reach and amplify the impact any one of our organizations could make on their own.

     

  • Expand global perspective

    One of our guiding principles is to embrace learning. We train our ICAs every week through our training and education engaged learning opportunity (TEELO). This is a time and a place for ICAs to refine their practice as community builders and deepen their understanding of the core concepts that connect to our work and the world around us. Ask the ICA in your building what they learned about in TEELO this week!

     

 Get Connected

New to MSU?

Interested in becoming an ICA?

  • Apply to be an ICA and serve the larger campus community.

Looking to partner with us?

The mruleICA Program