Troy Landis noted that Immerse International serves two major purposes.

"One is the housing, mostly for international students, who are here studying, and they mostly do not study here in this English program," said Landis, the director of education for the organization that is located at 321 Manor Ave., Millersville. "Mostly they are students at Millersville (University) or HACC or (people who are) working locally."

"Then there's the intensive English language program. That is for international students who came just to study, and they need a little more English before they can get to university, or local immigrant and refugee folks who settled here and are looking to get to that kind of university level of English," said Landis. "The mission of the whole organization is to create a community and belonging for our international students and neighbors, so that kind of encompasses both of those."

Immerse International is designed to prop up people from around the globe. "It's important because I think it creates a community of belonging for our international friends and students who come here, so they have support so that they have friends from around the world and have friends from the United States also," said Landis. "As a faith-based organization, it's a community that's built on the love of God, and hopefully they can feel that and sense that and know that too. It's a holistic kind of community wanting to support them."

The property was developed in 1909 as the Mennonite Children's Home and was known as the Millersville International House in 1987, Landis said. "It was an orphanage for 50 or 60 years until social services moved to foster care and shut down the orphanages," he added. "Then in the '80s, Eastern Mennonite Missions acquired the property and created a home for international students, so that they could feel welcome here, feel safe here, supported here. That's still what the house is."

Landis works mostly with the English program, which started 15 years ago, and he is on the leadership team for the whole organization. "The English program, specifically, is really helping people bridge the gap from kind of social English to like a university- or professional-level English," he said. "That's really where our niche has been, helping people who want a more intensive academic focus be here. We've had great, great success."

Landis is the only full-time employee, and he is aided by six part-time workers. There are typically between 18 and 23 people living in the house and about the same number in the English program. Some are doing both.

There are perks for those living in the international house. "We have community meals twice a month where everybody kind of gathers to eat together," said Landis. "And there's a lot of informal gatherings that happen. We provide some local field trips or outings together that we do, just to help them get to know the community, introducing them to different options, people that can be helpful. We provide some advising, helping them connect with universities or next-step kind of things for them."

Anyone interested in residing in the international house or getting English lessons can go to http://www.immerse-us.com and click "Apply Now."

"We have some available rooms, so people can check that out or they could just stop by for a tour," Landis said.

Volunteers are welcome. "Sometimes there's a need for English tutoring with our students outside the classroom or to help them take them places, show them around, get them accustomed to the place," said Landis.

There are also several other ways community members can help. "We have a 10-acre campus, so part of our hospitality and welcome is providing a place of beauty, of rest, of green, but it's also a lot of work to keep up," said Landis. "We're always looking for mowers in the summer, people for light landscaping and maintenance, kind of like any other facility. If there's volunteer hours that people want to do, definitely get in touch. We can always use extra hands."

He added that there is a scholarship fund for people who want to study at Immerse International full time but don't have the financial means. "If anybody's interested in being a part of that and assisting someone on their educational journey, they can do that here through Immerse too," said Landis.

Landis provided anecdotal evidence of Immerse International's achievements. A couple years ago, a Cuban doctor named Roberto was in the area working in a warehouse. "He came here for a year and a half, studied while working second shift, taking care of his family, and then he was able to get into Penn State's nursing program, and now he's at the nurse practitioner program here at Millersville," said Landis. "He really credits his time in the English program with kind of unlocking those doors for him. That's just one little snapshot of why this program is so important, not only for the people, but also for our community, to unlock the potential in people."