MCC’s International Festival celebrates diversity
By: Matt Layman
Mesa Community College’s international education department will host their 15th annual International Education Week from Nov. 17 – 20, featuring four different events celebrating international cultures.
The week will include a faculty workshop, Interfaith Dialog Luncheon, International Festival and Club Fair, and a panel discussion about birth and death across cultures.
The International Festival and Club Fair, which will be held Nov. 19 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., will be a collaboration between the international education department, the world languages department and the student life department.
Held in the center courtyard lawn at the Southern and Dobson campus, the festival will also allow students to learn about study abroad programs, meet students from around the world, and learn about languages taught on campus.
Students who visit five booths at the event will receive a free international lunch, which will include Mexican and Mediterranean food.
The festival will also feature Jaleo, a nine-piece Latin band.
“They’re excellent,” said Yvonne Schmidt, MCC’s study abroad coordinator. “They had been here a couple years ago and we were so impressed with them.”
Students from Turkey, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh will be at the International Festival and Club Fair, as well as at the panel discussion regarding birth and death across cultures.
Lynette McGraw, an art student at MCC, spoke on the importance of international study.
“It’s amazing how much our very personalities and the way we’re able to enjoy our culture is dominated by – or given to us by – the freedoms that we don’t even realize,” McGraw said.
McGraw studied abroad in Prague last summer, and said she got a very different experience than that of the United States. “There is no way to get the same experience sitting in a classroom as seeing and doing and actually experiencing.”
For more information about the event, contact the international education department, or visit mesacc.edu.
Their office is located in NU 6, N-120 on MCC’s Southern and Dobson campus, they are open from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., and they can be reached at (480) 461-7756 or at [email protected].
