This announcement appeared in the Iowa City Press-Citizen on Oct. 6, 2011.
The next WorldCanvass program from University of Iowa International Programs will explore “New Culture and New Welfare in South Asia: the Arts in India” at 5 p.m. Friday in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol Museum. The production is part of a larger UI conference of the same name today through Saturday, and all events are free and open to the public.
Daily rains, long bike rides and learning about diseases not common to her homeland are part of life now for Joy Storm of Princeton, a Peace Corps volunteer.
A 2002 Princeton High School graduate, Storm is now living in the African country of Kenya, more than 8,000 miles from her hometown. Arriving in Kenya in June, Storm spent 10 weeks in intense language, technical and cross-culture training before being sworn into the Peace Corps as a volunteer during a ceremony at the American Embassy. Following the ceremony, Storm and 47 other Peace Corps volunteers were sent to their respective sites, which for Storm, was the community of Kemelewa.
Employees at Iowa Orchard bustled about on a crisp fall morning last week as they prepared to open for the day.
Hundreds of pumpkins were on display outside, lined up in perfect rows. The store smelled of fresh-baked apple pies. Tarps were pulled off the children’s activities and hayrack ride.
This is the busiest time of year for Bryan Etchen and his employees at the orchard at 9875 Meredith Drive in Urbandale.
WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 26, 2011 – More than a dozen Peace Corps volunteers across Peru host weekly radio programs to provide information on health, current events and the environment to remote communities around the country. Volunteers often invite local community members and public officials to speak on topics ranging from HIV/AIDS prevention and care to healthy lifestyle tips and community service opportunities.
Peace Corps volunteers Jessica Smith of Iowa City, Iowa, and Nikki Eller of Seattle, Wash., host a weekly 45-minute radio show in western Peru which reaches more than 5,000 people. Since starting the show on Radio Hispana in February, Smith and Eller have hosted 17 shows covering heart health, HIV/AIDS awareness, emotional health, potable water, and the arts.
I was born in Togo, a country in West Africa, and raised in Moline, Ill. Coming to the University of Iowa was exciting for me because I thought my days of culture shock were behind me, but I was wrong.
“Diversity” isn’t a word people associate with a city in Iowa. Many are unaware of the number of diversity programs our university has to offer, and even more are unaware of how diversity affects them. This may be because of the lack of attention given to the UI’s multicultural organizations. We have more than 50 of these.
Hoping to reverse that trend, the university spent $115,000 in budget year 2007-08 on international recruitment, including sending staffers to recruiting fairs around the world. That investment has paid off, said Scott King, UI assistant dean of international programs.
Corey Creekmur sometimes opens his comics class with a text that might seem odd even to comics aficionados: Nancy newspaper strips.
“Early Peanuts and Nancy strips seem so simple,” he says. “But read carefully, they are more subtle than they look—they demonstrate how comics work.”
Creekmur, associate professor of English, and other UI scholars like Ana Merino and Rachel Williams are introducing students and colleagues alike to the study of comics. Together they’re charting comics’ storytelling language, political and cultural rhetoric, and creative potential—and they have joined forces to put the University on the comics studies map. (Learn more about the comics symposium)
A group of teachers from India are in Iowa City getting an education of their own.
The group of about 20 toured schools in the Iowa City district and attended lectures at the University of Iowa. The visit is an opportunity to showcase the University to people in another country.
Indian officials hope to pick up on things the United States education system does well, and implement those ideas into their curriculum.
WorldCanvass will kick off the 2011-12 season with a program featuring “Comics, Creativity and Culture” from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol Museum.
The monthly television and radio series from University of Iowa International Programs will continue each month with its tradition of lively discussion of culture, history, literature, language, politics and art, all surrounding an international theme. WorldCanvass takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. one Friday a month in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol Museum. All programs are free and open to the public.
University of Iowa departments are teaming up to improve job opportunities for international students.
And with a record number of international students at the university this fall, students said they’re happy to have more options.
“There has been a really nice transition in this last year,” said Scott King, the director of the International Student & Scholar Services. “Services for international students aren’t all in this office.”
University of Iowa student Gewiria Fadl entered a Best Buy store in Massachusetts one day in 2002 wearing a traditional Muslim headdress.
“Make sure she doesn’t have a bomb in there,” an employee manning the doorway said when the alarm at the entrance sounded.
Muslims across the country have experienced more incidents similar to Fadl’s since the four planes piloted by terrorists crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field 10 years ago.
“When I think of all the memories from that day, tears actually come to my eyes—the emotions of that day and the days afterward are hard to forget. So many experiences in a short time. I think about how we were worried in Norfolk, where I was working at the time at Old Dominion University, that we would be attacked after the Pentagon, as the Norfolk area is the largest area of military bases on the East Coast. I remember frantically looking for the business card of a former student who had just visited me and was working for an international accounting firm in NYC, as his employer was just the type of employer in the World Trade Center, but, thankfully, he wasn’t located there.
Freshman enrollment at the University of Iowa is “right on target” this fall, school officials said Wednesday upon the release of fall census counts for students. This year’s freshman class remained steady with last year’s record-setting enrollment among first-year students.
This fall, UI welcomed 4,565 first-time freshmen, eight more than last year, when the number of new freshmen increased by nearly 500 students from the year before.
A group of nearly 20 school administrators from India are visiting Iowa City through Sept. 14 for a leadership summit about U.S. education systems, particularly that of the University of Iowa and the Iowa City Community School District.
For them, it’s an opportunity to learn instead of teach.
“They have questions about everything from, ‘How do you feed that many students in the school system?’ to ‘How do you implement technology in a meaningful way?’” said Liz Hollingworth, summit co-convener with UI geography professor Rangaswamy Rajagopal and a professor in the UI College of Education’s Educational Policy and Leadership Program. “(We hope they learn) how to cultivate students who are creative and have a deep understanding of the applications of math and science.”
Four Fulbright Language Teaching Assistants (FLTAs) have arrived at the University of Iowa where they will spend the next year teaching Turkish, Portuguese, Hindi and Arabic. This year’s FLTAs are Zuhal Kasmer from Turkey, Clarissa Silva from Brazil, Sami Khan from India, and Othman Al Harrasi from Oman.
The teaching assistants will serve as cultural ambassadors for their home countries through presentations, classroom visits and other community events. They will also take two courses per semester as non-degree students during their year at the UI.
