Eight international
students attending Central Lakes College will present the Dec. 6 Cultural
Thursday at noon in Chalberg Theatre on the Brainerd campus. The free, public event will feature
students from Pakistan, India, and Indonesia. They will present information
about their schools, home life, jobs, urban and rural culture, and take
questions near the end of the 50-minute program. It is an opportunity for the
community to get acquainted through personal reports by Chiranjeet
Shah, Zishan Khan, and Richard Andrews from India; Abdul Qadir, Usman Naeem,
and Nasir Hussain from Pakistan; and Beatha Astamarindraputri and Elsa Sasmita
from Indonesia.
They are
one-year students at CLC through Community Colleges for International
Development, a program sponsored by the U.S. State Department. CLC was the
first college in Minnesota approved for participation three years ago.
The program gives
under-served, non-elite young adults from various countries an expense-paid
year of education. The students take 15 credit hours per semester at CLC and
sign up for 60 hours of unpaid internships and volunteer activities. A key
component is leadership and acquisition of knowledge essential to economic and
democratic development for their home nations.
Housed together near
campus, the international students are matched with local mentors for support.
The Cultural Thursday series is
coordinated through the Resource Center for Cultures and Languages of the
Americas as directed by Spanish instructor Jan Kurtz (218-855-883, jkurtz@clcmn.edu).
Programs are held at noon on the first Thursday each month.
