Exchange is for Everybody

Connecting Kalamazoo to people from all over the globe for cultural and professional connection - exploring our shared humanity.

Whether we measure the impact in better systems, improved services, changed minds, opened hearts, shared food and drink around tables filled with laughter, or lifelong relationships, it’s been a resounding success for the foreign and local exchange participants who have been a part of Global Ties Kalamazoo (formerly Colleagues International) since 1971.

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Mid-pandemic, in 2021, we changed our name to Global Ties Kalamazoo. We’re looking forward to new ways of making global connection possible for everyone in Kalamazoo, asking ourselves what authentic, meaningful, engaging, multilateral and equitable exchange can be, and we invite you to join us!

Global and Hyper Local

Check out our Global and Hyper Local Podcast at Public Media Network (PMN)

Global and Hyper Local

The Global and Hyper Local podcast focuses on the ways that connecting Kalamazoo with the world can enrich the lives of local people and guests from all over. We believe that exchange is for everybody. We do not attempt to solve the world's problems - rather, we explore how profound an impact getting to know each other across difference and geography can have.

Read this lovely piece by Zinta Aistars on the power of our work in Second Wave Southwest Michigan, Aug. 24, 2023

Global Ties Kalamazoo: The Power of Exchange in a Big Little City by Zinta Aistars

From the article: “The home hospitality was the best day of the non-educational part of the whole IVLP program,” Jankowska says. “Though it may sound funny for Americans, it was great to be able to visit an American home and talk to real Americans — and even peek into Leeanne’s fridge! We had an opportunity to try American food, see what our host reads, and talk about everyday life. This is something I have always wanted to see, to experience, and it will be my best memory from the whole trip.”

Get Involved

Bring leaders to your workplace for professional exchange, host visitors in your home, share dinner or your favorite things about Kalamazoo with a group, or join us as a paid intern. Help make our community stronger while making your own world more connected, one relationship at a time. Take our hosting survey and see opportunities here.

Pictured - photos from a handcrafted guide made by visitors to Kalamazoo in 1974 for cohorts of international leaders who would follow in their footsteps in the decades to come.

Our blog

Keep up with the latest on our programs, conversations with international and local partners, and find ways to get involved in real life. We resumed in-person programming in late March 2022 and the future is hybrid.

“Leveraging citizen diplomacy, that’s what we do.”

As part of celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2021, we began a series of interviews with volunteers, hosts, and visitors who have spent time with us in Kalamazoo. Former board president and longtime volunteer, Judy Huth, shared this wonderful story that really gets to the heart of what we do.

Judy Huth on breaking down stereotypes

Global Ties Kalamazoo (formerly Colleagues International) works with grassroots citizen diplomats throughout West Michigan, enriching local community with global diversity, one relationship at a time.