International Student Center raises cultural awareness with Latin American Open House

 

  • Latin American Open House provides showcase of Hispanic culture for students.
  • International Student Center allows international students opportunities to connect with each other.

 

Brenda Gonzalez steps towards the world map spanning one of the walls in Liberty University’s International Student Center. She points, her finger hovering over her hometown of Caracas, Venezuela, and begins to explain what makes her country great.

 

“You know Miss Universe?” Gonzalez says, beaming. “We have seven. Our women are beautiful. We also have the world’s biggest waterfall.”

 

As she talks, a passing student pauses to interject: “No, no. Colombia is better.” Gonzalez just rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

 

According to her, it’s common to see friendly sparring between Latino students advocating for the superiority of their homelands. But last week, they all came together to celebrate 20 different countries and their cultures during the International Student Center’s Sept. 13 Latin American Open House.

 

Music spilled out of DeMoss 2232 into the Grand Lobby as students—mostly international, interspersed with the occasional American—gathered in the center from noon to 4 p.m. to mingle, play games and experience the ethnic food, a staple in the Latin American culture.

 

The event showcased some of Latin America’s finest dishes, including Colombian empanadas and lomo saltados from Peru. For dessert, Colombian coffee was served with Hondurian neguados and Puerto Rican cake.

 

Eating meals like these is an element of home for many of the students that make up the international Latin American group.

 

“See, you have food,” Gonzalez said. “But we have the food, we have the taste and we have the flavor. For us, food is everything.”

 

For junior Kike Caycedo, the dishes — all prepared by the international students themselves — are a refreshing reminder of his home back in Bolivar, Colombia.

 

“In my personal experience, it’s hard to find authentic [Colombian] food here,” Caycedo said. “I don’t get homesick a lot, but when it comes to food, that’s when the homesickness hits.”

 

That’s why Caycedo likes the International Student Center. To him, it feels like home.

 

Since its advent in 2004, the center has served students from other countries by mitigating the transition into a new culture and making them as comfortable as possible during their time abroad.

 

“Once admissions gets them here, it’s our job to take care of them,” said Tunya Punell, operations coordinator and office manager for the center.

 

In addition to providing logistical services, such as those regarding student visas, the International Student Center gives the international students a place to build community. Open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the center not only lets students from the same countries connect, but also allows them to engage with other cultures as well.

 

“Every single international student can come here and we’ll say, ‘Hi, I’m Brenda,’ or ‘Hi, I’m Miguel, how are you?’” said Gonzalez, who usually drops by in between classes to see friends.

 

For Gonzalez, frequent visits to the center were instrumental in her social life.

 

“Here, I met Kike and Miguel and Marta,” Gonzalez said. “Two years later, we’re super friends. Without the [International Student Center], I wouldn’t know people.”

 

“It brings together community,” Pannell said, adding that events like the open houses are student-led. “It makes them feel like part of the campus.”

 

For the past 13 years, International Student Services has celebrated diversity by hosting events like “Taste of Nations.” But as the international group grew, so did the desire to recognize individual ethnicities.

 

“We had some other open houses,” International Student Advisor Christine Bautista said. “But they were based more around holidays — you know, a Christmas open house, a Thanksgiving open house.”

 

According to Pannell, these open houses began in 2011 and increased in frequency as more nationalities became represented on campus. She estimates the international student body has reached nearly a thousand students representing almost 90 foreign countries.

 

Over the academic year, the International Student Center now hosts an open house for students of Korean, Middle Eastern, Latin American, European, African, Caribbean, Canadian and Asian backgrounds.

 

However, these events do not celebrate diversity and culture for just the foreign students. They also aim to better involve American students—an endeavor that Gonzalez says is proving hard to pursue.

 

“They see ‘international’ and think they aren’t allowed,” Gonzalez said. “But we invite everyone.”

 

Tyler McMann, who is from South Carolina, attended the event and thinks it does not help that some American students simply lack the interest.

 

“Some haven’t even left their own state,” McMann, a global studies minor, said. “It’s important to have a global mindset.”

 

American students like Candice Sampson think participation is mutually beneficial.

 

“It’s hard to be in a different country,” said Sampson, who has had her fair share of culture shock as a missionary kid. “This is a great way for Americans to welcome the international students. It’s better than just plopping them here and saying, ‘Good luck!’”

 

Both Cayceda and Gonzalez serve as leaders of the Zumba Club established last May. They held demonstrations during the open house on the DeMoss Hall front steps and invited students to join.

 

It was another one of their many concerted efforts to involve the American student community.

 

But while she hopes to see more Americans frequent the center in the future, Gonzalez knows that cultural exposure transcends open houses and zumba classes.

 

“Our culture isn’t just traditions and food,” Gonzalez said. “You always bring it with you. It’s something you always share. “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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