International students gathered Friday in the University Office of International Programs to receive free help on their tax returns through a Tax Assistance Program.

With a month until tax returns are due, the International Hospitality Council is offering international students a place to turn to fill out the forms.

The program has 19 volunteers with an interest in accounting and helping students, she said.

"Our volunteers have a willingness to help other people and have an interest in taxes. They seem to thrive working on them,"said Joanne Green, executive director of the program for the International Hospitality Council.

This IRS-approved program, supported by the Centre County United Way and the University Office of International Programs, will continue its mission until April 15, said Green said international students are as worried about getting their tax return forms filled out correctly as residents.

"Just like Americans, it is intimidating to understand the complicated language of the return forms," she said.

Students are aided by volunteers who look at their W2 forms and copies of their tax records to help them fill out the form line by line, from the federal to the state to the local sections, Green said.

Robert Bernlohr, a retired faculty member in biochemistry, said he became involved with the program five years ago. He said he enjoyed volunteering because it allowed him to continue having contact with students.

Chris Pootjes, interim chair of the program, said she has been participating in the program since its beginnings in the '90s.

This year, Pootjes has been responsible for organizing the workshops and volunteer training, creating the schedule and ordering the tax forms and other materials needed for the program, she said.

"This project takes a lot of preliminary work, but I enjoy working with the students, because they are pleasant and very grateful," Pootjes said.

The program starts off with individual appointments; however, Green said that during spring break, the two largest groups of international students — 120 Chinese and 150 Indian participants — met in group sessions to fill out their taxes, as they had common concerns.

"The tax forms are different for international students and have different regulations for each group," Green said.

The appointment book was put out in early February, and it filled up in 10 days due to the growing number of international students, she explained.

A waiting list for students who were not able to schedule an appointment was created, but this too immediately filled, Green said. She said there is usually a panic among the students in April and more of them try to schedule appointments.

As a result, the program expanded online the second week of March, she said.

"If this approach works, it will continue to be used for the following years," Green said.

She is still waiting to see the results of the Web site, on which students can also receive help and on which the Office of International Programs has spent more than $1,000, she said.

Sreeram Ramakrishnan (graduate-industrial engineering) has been getting help with his taxes for the past five years at Penn State.

He said his major concern was changing his status from an international student to a resident.

"The volunteers are very careful, extremely helpful, patient as well as friendly," he said.