Family thankful for international friends

Liz Hughes, of London, rubbed her stomach Thursday afternoon after another Thanksgiving meal at the Lawrence home of her close friends, John and Virginia Conard.

“It was very good. Not enough room in the stomach to make the most of it,” said the former exchange student from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, who studied one year at Kansas University beginning in 1997.

Hughes returned to Lawrence this week to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Conards, who introduced her to the American holiday. The couple has played host to about 50 international students at KU during the past 35 years as part of the Friendship Family program.

While they usually have their extended family over to mingle with the students, Virginia Conard said illness reduced their party Thursday to Hughes, Chelsea Zhou, of China, and a new guest.

Rachel Wu, a KU graduate student in education from Taiwan, was added to the Conard extended family this year. After eating her first Thanksgiving dinner, Wu said her mother at home mainly used pumpkin in rice porridge.

Kansas University's Friendship Family program pairs volunteers with international students for the holidays. From left, Virginia Conard visits Thursday with Liz Hughes, of London; Rachel Wu, of Taiwan; Chelsea Zhou, of China; and her husband, John Conard.

“We don’t use it for dessert,” Wu said. “I didn’t know pumpkin can be tasty for dessert.”

KU asks Lawrence community members to adopt international students each year for meals and friendship. John Conard said he hated to think about students sitting in their dorms or apartments on Thanksgiving.

“It’s really fun to just visit and learn about their backgrounds and families,” Virginia Conard said. “They show us where they live on the map and show us pictures of their families.”

John Conard, who graduated from KU in 1943, was Kansas speaker of the House of Representatives from 1967 to 1968.

“He’s a former lots of things,” Hughes said of his long resume, which includes World War II pilot, politician, journalist and administrator at KU.

Hughes has become like family to the Conards. They have visited her parents in England and have played host to them in Lawrence.

“We learned how important it was for families to open their hearts to international students,” Virginia said of the first two students they hosted from France and Norway.

“A lot of students come here and don’t know a lot about America,” John said. “If they get into families, then they really begin to get acquainted with America.”

The Conards also said opening their home for Thanksgiving reminded them of the story of the first Thanksgiving.

“It’s a wonderful story from the fact that the first winter was so difficult,” John said. “Thanks to the American Indians that so many of the Puritans survived.”

Virginia Conard, a 1948 KU graduate, also said that she liked following the students after they left KU. Hughes now works for a teleprompter company in London. Zhou is an architecture student from China, and on Thursday, she spent her third Thanksgiving with the Conards.

“I just feel that it’s warm. They are really a nice family here,” Zhou said.