Celebrating International Education Month with International Student Life at UGA
International Education Month is more than just three weeks in November. For the University of Georgia’s campus, it’s about internationalizing the student experience and celebrating a variety of cultures throughout the year.
“A large part of International Education Month is showing everyone that international education doesn’t just happen in a vacuum, it doesn’t just happen here in ISL or immigration services and OGE,” said Natalie Kenny-Hall, Senior Programming Coordinator for International Student Life at UGA. “Literally every department has some kind of international education going on.”
International Education Month is dedicated to providing international education to all UGA students. It’s based on the federal initiative of International Education Week, which is the third week of November.
“We recognized that so much international education was being done at UGA that we needed to expand that to cover the entire month,” she said.
It kicked off with the Parade of Flags on Monday, Nov. 4, where students requested their countries’ flag from the International Student Life office. Each student carried their country’s flag from the Arch to Tate Student Center.
“I was carrying the Brazilian flag. It’s my first semester here, and I just came from Brazil, and it was an honor to bring the Brazilian flag with me,” said Majorie Baio, Graduate Assistant for ISL.
Following the Parade of Flags was WorldFest, an event held in Tate Plaza where several UGA ISL organizations had a table displaying their own cultures.
This was a chance for both international and domestic students to interact with international cultures and student organizations from all around campus.
“The ability for our international students to be able to speak about their culture to their peers is really lovely to see that happen in real time,” said Natalie Kenny-Hall.
A variety of departments across campus put on events to continue supporting ISL’s initiative to expand international education across campus throughout the month.
At UGA’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute, the Dancing with Devils: Latin American Masks Traditions exhibit is dedicated to celebrating a small portion of Latin American culture. It’s available for all UGA students to take time to engage with a particular international culture and learn about celebrations and traditions.
“I think international students just love to see a focus of things that are not American and see that celebrated, not just a quick hat-tip of ‘Oh we’re doing this, isn’t that nice?’,” said Natalie Kenny-Hall. “It’s real in depth, a whole month of celebrating on campus that helps them feel more included and it opens up more opportunities for them as well.”
Skills I Used
I liked being able to create another story based on International Student Life. I enjoyed being able to talk about such a broad topic because I think it gave me the opportunity to film different angles to provide a clear picture of International Education Month. This was also my first time using video for a journalistic purpose, and I feel like I learned a lot about filming and editing techniques, which helped me create this product.