Intercultural Ambassadors

Are you committed to making TRU a more equitable and inclusive place, where folks from all cultural backgrounds feel they truly belong? Do you want to build practical skills for engaging with people who are different from yourself? Do you feel you have something to contribute to promoting decolonization and intercultural understanding on campus and beyond? If so, the Intercultural Ambassador Program may be for you!

The Intercultural Ambassador Team are student advocates for intercultural development, empathy, human rights, and anti-racism who work to promote these values and practices at all levels of the university. This group of students works together from September to April to engage in their own intercultural development, as well as hosting events and launching initiatives to promote intercultural engagement and learning at TRU. The Intercultural Ambassadors (ICAs) are valued members of the Intercultural Department, providing intercultural education, training, and advocacy to fellow students, staff, faculty and administrators.

Roles and Responsibilities

All ICA members are expected to meet certain commitments and responsibilities as part of their placement in the program.

There are two levels of participation possible: Intercultural Ambassadors (first time participants) and Intercultural Mentors (returning participants). All participants are expected to meet the following responsibilities:

• Spend 4 hours per week in House 4 (physical space) working on intercultural projects and hosting drop-in visitors. Spend a total of 6 hours per week on program activities (all activities listed here).
• Attend and participate in regular Intercultural Ambassador meetings, training sessions, events and activities.
• Attend all team meetings as scheduled.
• Attend mandatory, in person all day training during the week of August 26-30 2024. If you cannot attend this training, you are not eligible for the program.
• Support a minimum of 4 major intercultural give-back projects. At least one of these projects will involve an individual, small group, or team research project and give-back project proposal due at the end of the Fall semester.
• Support program and unit sustainability through public and social media engagement about intercultural learning at TRU, as well as event and initiative promotion. This includes delivering a minimum of two ten-minute classroom presentations per semester.
• When invited and appropriate, work in right relations to support the work of Cplul’kw’ten, Indigenous Education, and other campus and community partners to meet reconciliation responsibilities.
• When invited and appropriate, work with TRU World, the Intercultural Understanding Sub Committee of Senate, the Internationalization Strategic Planning unit and other campus and community partners to contribute to just, equitable, and inclusive internationalization.
• Commit to ongoing intercultural development through education, attending all Intercultural Speaker Series events and completing all online educational activities.