By Tiffany Allison
With Chancellor Ken Peacock and UNC Tomorrow’s push
for internationalizing the campus of Appalachian State University,
the university has broadened its international education and development
department by modifying programs to encompass more international
interaction.
“Most (students and community members) can’t access
the international students because they live in the LLC (Living
Learning Center),” Natalie Best, assistant director of the
Office of International Education and Development said. “One
way to meet them is through the international coffee hour. Everyone
is invited and can participate.”
The department offers outreach programs for students and community
members alike to experience life from a foreign perspective. The
International Connections Program (ICP) promotes hospitable interactions
between local citizens and ASU international students and scholars.
In essence, the program matches an international student with
a member of the community who would be willing to connect with
a student by cooking them a meal or showing them sites around
the community. Best said the program has more families interested
in hosting than it has international students.
“It is a nice reflection on our town of Boone and attitude
towards foreigners,” she said.
There are 19 new students and five new scholars, hailing from
Mexico, Costa Rica, Denmark, Thailand, Kenya and even Iraq and
India, who have arrived this spring for their first semester.
According to Best, 10 percent of ASU’s faculty and staff
are internationals. Scholars from across the seas come to educate
students not only in subject matter but culturally, as well. International
Outreach, part of international education and development, sends
scholars and students into local schools to offer eclectic information
about their home country. International Outreach created “World
in Words,” a program for K-8 students in Watauga County to
explore different cultures through foreign languages, which started
Aug. 18, 2008.
The international coffee hour, sponsored by different on-campus
organizations, meets every Friday at 12:30 until 2:30 at Whitewater
cafe in the student union. The only requirement for an organization
to sponsor the coffee hour is that they have to be internationally
related.
INTAPP or International Appalachian works beside International
Outreach to recruit more international students to ASU. INTAPP
also hopes to increase the number of domestic students who would
like to study abroad and to enhance interaction between local
ASU students and international ASU students.
Andrew Potter, member of INTAPP, said the group has been expanding
its events to include more attendants. Members are planning an
international prom at the end of the semester for international
and local students to join together before summer break.
“It’s a way to say goodbye to those who will be leaving
and graduating,” Potter said. “Anyone is invited to
attend.”
INTAPP also holds an international cafe every fall semester, which
is open for the public to enjoy international music and cuisine
donated by local business around Watauga County.
“We really try to get the community involved,” Potter
said. “It’s a great time to meet and interact with
the internationals and gather more knowledge of international
cultures.”
Every year near Easter break, INTAPP organizes an aid project
called “Rice Week,” where members sell cups of rice
to support a selected village. For every $10 earned, 10 cups
of rice may be given to a village, or for every $100, a cow
could be bought. Last year, the group raised $400 in proceeds.
ASU is hosting its seventh annual Diversity Celebration April
7. The celebration includes Appalachian’s People of the
Planet Soccer Tournament, which was designed to bring players
from around the world and ASU students together to celebrate
different cultures while slugging it out on the field.
The diversity celebration also includes the Unity Festival,
which was originally created in response to the Ku Klux Klan’s
march down the streets of Boone and Blowing Rock in April 1992,
designed to raise the acceptance level of the town of Boone
through music, storytelling, drama, dance and visual arts.
For more information about how to get involved with the foreign
exchange programs or diversity week, visit www.international.appstate.edu.
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