On Saturday night, I walked into the Zinner Forum in the Heller School of Social Policy and Management to find a different scene than usual. A man was standing at the front of the forum yelling into a microphone, instructing pairs to "swing their partners 'round and 'round." Instead of seeing students studying in the school's characteristic red chairs, there were international Heller students and senior citizens square dancing together. The enthusiastic dancing partners were made up of elderly Bostonians and international Heller students from everywhere from Vietnam to Tanzania. Before the dancing, I walked into what is usually a classroom to find the older dancers serving classic American dishes to the international students. Their plates were piled high with homemade food, including peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches.

Saturday's square dance reflected the idea of "common humanity," that Sherbaz Ali Khan (GRAD), participated in the dance and frequently speaks of, as the students from all different ethnic backgrounds and the elderly, mostly Jewish, Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute members danced the night away together as if they were old friends.

This event was just one of many for BOLLI's International Friends Program, a program under the umbrella group which is a learning center for adults between the ages of 60 and 90. BOLLI is one of 122 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes throughout the country, according to its website.

"This is our 10th anniversary. People come to learn, to make friends and be in a social situation," says Sharon Sokoloff, BOLLI director. BOLLI members take courses in everything from current events to physics and also bring speakers to campus to talk at a lunchtime series they have on Tuesdays.

The International Friends Program began six years ago in 2004 was created to facilitate friendship between international students in Heller and members of BOLLI.

The program arose after BOLLI members voiced feelings of isolation from the rest of the campus. Lynn Wiener, the Friends Program founder, who came up with the idea to integrate BOLLI members with campus through pairing them with international students in a friendship program.

"[BOLLI members] are there to let [the students] know, 'I'm here, I'm here, I care about you.' They have a challenge, they talk to their person. I think everybody wants to get outside his or her little world and culture. That's why [BOLLI members] are here," says Sokoloff.

"I had heard of similar programs with people befriending [international students]. There was a program at Tanglewood in the Berkshires, [where there were] no responsibilities, no fiscal, housing, just friendship. Mutual exchanges of cultures," says Wiener.

Since then, there have been over 400 Sustainable International Development students in the program and about 75 BOLLI friends. The Heller students are all from abroad, and since their ages vary so much, some even have families they have left behind in their home country.

"Our members serve the role as a family for folks," says Sokoloff.

At the beginning of the fall semester, BOLLI members and the Heller students get together for a meet-and-greet.

"The members and students talk... and then the committee takes names and hooks people up. Every friendship is its own thing," says Sokoloff.

The committee is made up of BOLLI members who have experience in the International Friends Program.

After this initial meeting, the friends go on outings together in Boston to give them a feel for life in the U.S., specifically in Boston. Friends have gone to museums, the beach, bowling and to restaurants.

BOLLI maintains that the program is based on friendship, and BOLLI members do not act as mentors to the international students.

"It's not mentoring in the sense of professional or academic, it may be kind of life mentoring, just being a great friend because our members are in the wisdom stage of life," says Sokoloff.

If there is a problem with the pairing, there is board of BOLLI members that are there for the friends to deal with problems.

"We train [BOLLI members] at the beginning of the year for common problems. [For instance], students will get into financial problems and will reach out to members, who should immediately contact us. It's like no. [There's] boundary. They are just friends," says Sokoloff.

In addition to the outings, BOLLI friends have their international friends over for holidays and family events.

Wiener, the program founder from Newton, never thought she would be sharing her Passover seder with students from places like Haiti, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. However, for the past five years, the seder table has been the picture of the International Friends Program.

"We have them to the house, and I have children and grandchildren in the area, so everyone has a good time with that," says Wiener.

One of her friends, Ali Khan, is in his second year in the Sustainable International Development program and has been Wiener's friend since fall of 2008. Ali Khan, an outspoken man from Pakistan, says it is because of Wiener and her family that he has been able to learn so much about U.S. culture and history, and that he feels he would not have been able to learn without them.

"We will not have learned so many things about U.S. culture, U.S. people, different festivals. If they were not here, we would not have known. Maybe through other ways but maybe not as interesting, and not through the real people. Reading [about] a place or going to a place, that's fine, but you need real people," says Ali Khan.

Ali Khan and Wiener have shared holidays together and have learned about commonalities between them despite their religious and cultural differences.

"[Wiener] is caring like a mother. She [always] asks how the weather is affecting [me], about our studies, caring like a mother but sharing like a friend. I say she is a friend with a motherly nature," says Ali Khan.

"My family and I are Muslim, but my thinking is that I believe in humanity that is the religion of all of us. I have been to church, mosque, [synagogue], for me it is a source of understanding each other. What I feel like in BOLLI in what I've seen, religion doesn't matter but common humanity, and that's why we are connected," says Ali Khan.

BOLLI members and their international friends have had generally positive experiences. However, the SID program that they are in is only two years long, and oftentimes, the students return to their native country upon completion of the program. Even though it is sad for the friends to separate, many remain in touch. Wiener maintains her relationships via e-mail. Two of her friends, now graduated, from Zimbabwe, have stayed in Boston and still attend holidays with her.

"Wherever I go, I will be in touch with her. If I'm able to get a job here, definitely I will be in contact with her, or even if I go back to Pakistan or wherever I go, I have a relationship with them that is forever. It will not be over when my program is over. When I talk to students about my Heller experience I will tell them about Lynn. It has become an integral part," says Ali Khan.