Campus events include Facebook challenge, ‘Travels Around the World’ and march; student club still needs a sponsor.
By Rachel Cooper
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
International Education Week is celebrated nationally the week of Nov. 14, and this college will host several events to commemorate it.
“It is an international celebration,” said languages Professor Sylvia Ybarra. “Schools, institutions across the country, make efforts to celebrate the importance of international education, education that invites people from the world to meet and get to know each other so that we probably can maybe get along a little better.”
International students can experience a Spurs game against the Miami Heat at 7:30 p.m. today at the AT&T Center. For tickets, email sac-iso@alamo.edu.
A challenge will start Tuesday on the international student services Facebook page that will run through Friday. The office will post photos of international flags, and students can guess which country the flag belongs to, said Martha Buchanan, coordinator of foreign students.
The photos will be posted at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. each day.
Winners can collect their prizes in the international students office in Room 212 of Fletcher Administration Center.
The prizes include an inflatable globe, T-shirts, coffee mugs and pennants from this college.
If no one collects the prize by 5:30 p.m., they will recycle the prizes for the next day.
International students will participate in a march and luncheon at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday. They will gather outside Oppenheimer Academic Center holding flags from places such as Mexico, South America, Southeast Asia, Angola and others.
They will walk to Koehler House for a Thanksgiving meal and recruit students to eat as they walk to the house. The luncheon begins at 11 a.m.
“We encourage our internationals to bring a friend,” Buchanan said.
Last year around 25-30 people were at the luncheon.
The center for English language learning or CELL department will be hosting “Travels Around the World” noon to 2 p.m. Thursday in Loftin Student Center, said languages Professor Sylvia Ybarra.
The students have been working for weeks on creating display boards of information from their home countries.
Tables will be set up in the Fiesta Room for the students to showcase the food, culture, tradition and history of their country.
This event is “an opportunity for, really the broader SAC community to learn a little about these countries, celebrate International Education Week and it gives our students an opportunity to practice their skills,” Ybarra said.
They are students from ESLA 0320 and ESLA 0330, Speaking and Listening courses.
The event also will include Turkish music; a mariachi band, Mariachi Los Parientes; a performance of Brazilian martial arts called Capoeira Luanda; and Iraqi karaoke.
International students are welcome to meet at the clock tower at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the University Of the Incarnate Word for Light The Way.
The university strings up Christmas lights throughout the campus.
“Rockefeller Center turns on the lights for the Christmas tree. Well, Incarnate Word turns on the lights all across their campus,” Buchanan said.
“It’s a nice way to tie off International Education Week.”
The college had hoped to schedule other events sponsored by the International Students Association, but there is no faculty adviser this semester, Buchanan said.
“Our International Student Association doesn’t exist,” Buchanan said.
To get the club started again, international students need a faculty sponsor.
“I feel like we need to put out a wanted sign or something on Craigslist,” she said.
For more information, visit the international student services Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioCommunityCollegeInternationalStudents/.