The University community celebrated International Education Week this week with events organized by groups across Grounds.
These include the Career Center, the Fralin Museum of Art and the Institute of World Languages.
Erica Goldfarb, promotional coordinator at the International Studies Office, said the week is endorsed by the U.S. Department of State.
Both colleges and high schools around the country participate each year.
“It’s an opportunity to showcase the many different global and international events,” Goldfarb said. “We’re just trying to make sure they get their own special time to be really visible.”
International Education Week began with the Culture Fest Saturday, during Family Weekend at the University. This year, the theme is Arts and Technology, Goldfarb said.
The Career Center is participating by holding global recruiting events. Dreama Johnson, associate director for public service community and global careers at the Career Center, hosted a Global Internship Panel and Resource Fair Wednesday. During the event, she said students are clearly interested in travelling abroad and the event fits perfectly with the spirit of International Education Week.
“I think from our career counselling appointments we hear from students about their interest in wanting to either study abroad or volunteer or work abroad, so we knew that it was a point of interest,” Johnson said.
The event consisted of a discussion panel, in which six University students who have previously done internships abroad talked about their experiences and answered questions.
After hearing from the panelists, attendees were given the chance to ask panelists and representatives from the various co-sponsors — such as Education Abroad and the University Global Internships Office — questions about their programs and experiences.
Tammy Cavazos, a fourth-year College student on the panel who is graduating this December, talked about her time abroad in Guatemala.
“As an intern, my project was building a solar water heater at a local publish hospital,” Cavazos said. “[We] had to find a way to use the available resources to fit the hospital.”
Cavazos’s advised students planning on travel abroad was to be culturally sensitive.
“Be open, and don’t be afraid of letting people correct you,” she said. “Don’t have cultural expectations because every culture is different.”
Fourth-year College student Jelmer Nagtegaal said he hopes to intern overseas after he graduates. He said he wanted to speak with someone who interned after they had graduated, but found the event helpful for the connections he was able to make and the resources available.
“It was still useful,” Nagtegaal said. “For me it was more about getting in touch with the various organizations here.”
A number of multinational companies and employers had booths at the career fair Wednesday, which will continue Thursday, Johnson said.
Examples include the Peace Corps, POLITICO and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
The Fralin is also participating in International Education Week through “Art Speaks! Docent Tours in World Languages,” an initiative created specifically for the week.
Fralin Docent Coordinator Lauren Patton said student volunteers are giving tours in French, Spanish, German and Mandarin.
“We’re trying to present as diverse a slate as possible to really take advantage of the capabilities of our students and appeal to the variety of people in Charlottesville that speak languages other than English,” Patton said.
The tours also allow the Fralin to build lasting partnerships with the University’s world language departments, ensuring the spirit of IEW lasts far beyond this week, Patton said.
The Institution of World Languages will be participating in IEW for the first time this year. Many of their events occur as part of their Fall Symposium, including a lineup of speakers from various universities emphasizing the correlation between technology and language.
Miao-Fen Tseng, the inaugural director of the Institute of World Languages, said the themes of art, technology and foreign teaching go hand in hand.
“We hope to see as many people as possible to again not only to simply attend the talks, but to participate in interactive sessions,” Tseng said.
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