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St. Cloud State University
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International students celebrate culture
By Crystal Meyer
Published:
Monday, September 30, 2002
In the past, SCSU has celebrated campus diversity with various cultural nights and international nights that unite students by commemorating various cultures.
This year, in that same spirit, SCSU hosted International Student Recognition Day.
International Student Recognition Day was created to honor SCSU’s commitment to international education. With almost 950 students from 82 countries, SCSU is one of the state universities identified as having the largest number of international students.
The idea for the night was to have International students do activities classified as “American.” International students would then be more exposed to the culture. Another of the day’s goals was to attempt to get international students and local students to interact with one another and learn about one another’s cultures.
“The night is to let people know it’s a very diverse campus and that there are lots of international students,” junior Pierre Dewet said. “It also lets the international students know St. Cloud is proud to have them here and makes them feel welcome. They are trying to make SCSU a home away from home.”
The night began with a volleyball match against South Dakota State, and featured various cultural contests throughout the night. In one of these contests, Katrin Amburger won a semester pass to Eastman.
International students from a variety of countries including South Africa, Germany and Pakistan enjoyed the game.
Not only were there students from different countries attending the game, but faculty from other countries also came to check out SCSU facilities. One of the faculty members in attendance was Sharon Beckermann, the sports director at the University of Port Elizabeth in South Africa.
“The idea is we want to see the facilities, and see if they add up or are equal to SCSU,” Beckermann said. “We are far more advanced and have broader events when it comes to sports because we think sports is the only way to get students involved. However, only a small portion of students really enjoy sports and we need to incorporate a different variety of activities, such as SCSU has homecoming, something that doesn’t exist back home.”
As the night wrapped up and the volleyball game and cultural activities ended, students filed out of the gymnasium, but the many flags remained–a reminder of the pride SCSU takes in its multicultural community.
