With more than 60% of Pepperdine students studying abroad before graduating International Programs initiated International Education Week a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education in efforts to promote programs that prepare American students to interact with students globally while attracting international students to the United States.
Nichole Skelton assistant director of academics in the International Programs Office and lead event planner for the weeks activities describes the evolution of IEW at Pepperdine “We first started doing IEW three years ago with smaller events like the photo contest sending letters to students overseas and a few convocations. But this year we felt the need to have an educational focus. I think we have so many resources on campus that we need to utilize for international education issues.”
Throughout the week students could attend three convocations enjoy a new cuisine nightly in the cafeteria and hear from professors and students about their experiences abroad. Each day of the week was designated to a different country: China Argentina Russia Italy and India. Each day included its own events ranging from a table tennis tournament on China Day to a convocation with Pepperdine custodians and landscapers on Latino Day.
The Ten Thousand Villages Festival was the largest event of the week. Adamson Plaza was turned into a marketplace where handcrafted trinkets were sold from Third World countries. Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit program that works with artisans who are unemployed or underemployed and the income they make from selling their works goes to food education health care and housing. The fair also hosted IP tea with an international student where students could talk to international students at Pepperdine and hear their stories of life outside the United States. The main event of the day was the rice challenge where students were asked to eat one cup of rice for the day to see how almost two-thirds of the world lives on only two dollars a day.
Many students came to take the challenge and supported Ten Thousand Villages and other nonprofit organizations that were present for the day. Junior Jeff Rozman who joined the festivities said “My favorite part of IEW was Ten Thousand Villages Day because I think we were able to help a lot of people in need and Pepperdine should help these families all over the world. And the rice was awesome.”
Jason Hale office assistant at International Programs believes that it has been very eye-opening to all the students and has brought awareness to campus. ” I think that we learned a lot and it was very successful doing it the first time this way and we can only build on it for 2010.”