The precursor organization to Horizons International was started by RPI graduate students Peter Moore and Ravi Ravichandran (an international student from Sri Lanka) after seeing a video about international student ministry at the Intervarsity Urbana Conference in 1984.  Peter and Ravi organized the first welcome dinner for RPI international students at the Brunswick Presbyterian Church in the fall of 1985.  Mark Harkness joined the small team in 1988 and would later become Area Director and lead the organization for the next 20 years.  Other local churches came along side and the Friendship Partner program was begun. The ministry was extended to U Albany in 1989.   The local group formed a relationship with Horizons International (Boulder, Colorado) in 1990 through contact with Horizons staff at Cornell University.  During this time international director Georges Houssney traveled to Albany periodically to meet with the steering committee and offer training seminars for Friendship Partners.  Ministry was extended to Union College in 1997 through collaboration with the First Presbyterian Church in Schenectady.  The now decade-old relationship was formalized with Horizons International in 2001.  Ministry was extended to the College of Saint Rose in 2008.  Each year Horizons continues to work with the more than 2000 international students and scholars who study and work at these schools, as well as internationals from other area colleges.  

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