A WTAMU International Expo will be making the rounds at WT starting on Monday, April 8 through Friday, April 12.
For several years the International Expo has been held in the JBK and hosted by the International Student Office. In recent years, the CORE Center has taken over the event and, due to the success of the event, is extending it to a weeklong event for the first time.
“This is the first year we have opened up the whole week,” Skip Chisum, the Director of Student Activities, said. “It puts the focus on international students, to give them a voice on campus, to let them show themselves to the rest of the campus, and also to give them time to have fun.”
The International Student Office helps guide international students through the application process and admission process at WT. But it does not stop at the admission process as many international students can refer to the website or office for help with their visas, housing, employment and changing their major.
“I like that it is so diverse,” Rochelle Parchment, a senior Psychology major from Jamaica, said. “Students from all over just coming together as one and you get to learn about different cultures. I think that is so cool and interesting because I learned about stuff that I never knew and I learned to like a lot of stuff.”
The Director of the International Student Office, Kristine Combs, ran the event from 1995 until a few years ago when the CORE center volunteered to take over so she could focus more on recruiting international students to WT. Combs said that when Chisum expressed the idea of a weeklong event, she mentioned doing a flag parade as part of the event.
“I always wanted to do a flag parade, but I was already overwhelmed with just the cooking and the cleaning,” Combs said. “The purpose in [the flag parade] is because it is very colorful and very beautiful but I think it also makes everyone on this campus aware that we have all these nationalities and all these cultures represented on this campus.”
The CORE office has a full slate of events ready for International Week. The International Parade of Flags kicks off the week Monday, April 8, at 12:15 p.m. at the Pedestrian Mall. The International Expo will be on Tuesday, April 9, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the JBK Legacy Hall. The first of two new events is the International Talent Show on Thursday, April 11, at 7 p.m. in the JBK Legacy Hall. Then, the week is capped off by an event for the international students to relax with an International Dance Party in the Wesley Center on Friday, April 12, from 8-11 p.m., where Mr. and Mrs. WT International will be crowned.
“I personally have never gone to one of these so what I am looking forward to is the talent show,” Parchment said. “It is always fun to see people do crazy stuff, and I am also looking forward to the parade of flags because it is really cool to see all the different countries where people are from.”
Chisum encourages all students, whether international or domestic, to come out to any of the events.
“All of these events are open to domestic students,” Chisum said. “The cool thing about the dance party is we will play nothing but international music. So all the students will have a chance to bring pop music from Korea, pop music from Japan, dance music from India. And they like to show off their cultures, so it’s fun.
With all these events planned, Chisum still wants to showcase the International Expo as the star event.
“I think the [International] Expo is the crowned jewel of the week,” Chisum said. “If I could only do one event that week I would come to the expo. It’s because there in one fell swoop you get to sample so much about so many different cultures all in one sitting, and that’s pretty cool.”
