I landed with one suitcase and no winter coat. By Friday, three strangers had become my family.
Computer Science · Class of 2023 · University of Minnesota
Hearth is a nonprofit that wraps around international students during their loneliest semester — from the airport gate to the graduation stage.
Four programs. One promise.
Concrete support for the moments that matter most — landing, settling in, running short, and finding your people.
Airport Welcome
No one lands alone.
Volunteers meet students at the gate — often at 2 a.m. — with a handwritten name sign, a warm meal, and a ride to their dorm or apartment.
Support this program
First-Week Kits
A bare apartment becomes a home.
Donated bedding, towels, kitchen basics, and a winter coat — assembled and delivered before the student's first class. Because wire transfers from home take weeks.
Support this program
Emergency Fund
When home is 8,000 miles away.
A no-questions-asked micro-grant (up to $200) covers groceries, transit, or medication during the gap between arrival and first stipend or transfer.
Support this program
Conversation Circles
Broken English is celebrated here.
Weekly gatherings — coffee shops, living rooms, campus lawns — where language doesn't have to be perfect. Just present.
Support this programNo student should spend their first week in a new country wondering if anyone knows they arrived.
Hearth was founded in 2019 by three alumni who each remembered their first week alone — a bare mattress, a phone that couldn't connect, a campus that felt like a foreign city. They made a simple promise: the next student wouldn't feel that way. Five years later, that promise has a name.
Fund a First Week
Every dollar becomes something a student holds in their hands. Choose what you'd like to give.
🛒 First-week grocery kit. Rice, eggs, canned goods, and enough to eat while they figure out the nearest store.
Secure · Tax-deductible · 94¢ of every dollar reaches students
Funds open in August for fall semester arrivals. Every dollar committed by July 15 ships a kit.
Volunteer a Ride
Have a car and 90 minutes? You can be the first friendly face a student sees in America.
We'll match you with a student arriving near you. No commitment beyond one ride.
What a first week becomes.
The students who arrived alone. The families who showed up. The engineers who came back to give.
"I had $12 and a dead phone when I landed. Hearth had someone waiting."
Kofi arrived from Accra on a December night when the temperature was −18°F. He had never seen snow. A Hearth volunteer named James was at the gate with his name on a sign, a warm coat, and a car with heated seats. Four years later, Kofi graduated summa cum laude in Electrical Engineering.
Electrical Engineering · Class of 2024
The Petersons hosted one student. They came to the graduation.
Linda and Tom Peterson hosted a student through Hearth in 2021. They attended her graduation in 2023. They've since donated to fund 14 airport welcome packages.
"I slept on a bare mattress my first week. Now I fund the kits."
Priya is now a Senior Engineering Manager at a Fortune 500. She gives $150/month — one full airport welcome package — because she remembers exactly what it felt like to need one.
Three of our best engineers came on F-1 visas.
Meridian Technologies sponsors 40 airport welcome packages each fall. Their HR director says it's the highest-ROI community investment they make.
340 students. Six languages. One Tuesday evening.
Conversation Circles now happen in 8 cities. The only rule: show up. Broken sentences are not just tolerated — they're applauded.
Fund a circle