Beginning on Nov. 18, BYU celebrated International Education Week, celebrating not only international students but students studying abroad as well.
International Education Week encapsulates the phrase “the world is our campus,” as it highlights the work of both the Kennedy Center and the International Student and Scholar Services.
Sam Brown, the director of the International Student and Scholar Services, described the two offices with the quip: “they export, we import.”
“International Education Week is actually a joint venture between the Department of State and the Department of Education, so it’s celebrated on campuses all across the United States this week — it’s not a BYU thing,” Brown said. “BYU is grateful to be part of that celebration.”
For the entire week, there were various events and activities for students to participate in throughout campus. The week kicked off with stations around campus handing out free boxes of chocolate to students.
“(The boxes of chocolate) were donated by a former BYU student who actually created their own chocolate company, and every year … they’ve donated these chocolates as a thank you, and also a way to raise awareness for International Education Week,” Nan Arredondo, an office manager at the International Student and Scholar Services, said.
To Arredondo, International Education Week means “celebrating cultures working together, raising education levels everywhere.”
Another event associated with the celebration was the annual International Study Programs Film Festival. The festival gave students who attended study abroad programs the opportunity to submit a film about their experience.
Aaron Rose-Balderas, the host of the film festival and the Kennedy Center’s study abroad program coordinator, has been on dozens of study abroad programs as faculty and as a student.
“I have visited many, many programs and it expands my world — it breaks my bubble. Even though I’ve been on the road internationally with BYU for twenty years, every time I go I’m a little bit nervous … what do I need to learn before I go?” Rose-Balderas said.
For Rose-Balderas, BYU’s study abroad programs highlight the broad nature of education by offering opportunities for all students to try something new.
“It’s definitely interdisciplinary,” Rose-Balderas said. “We have students on the rheumatic relief program who aren’t necessarily pre-med … we’ll have a student from linguistics or a student from art history that wants to explore that as a career choice.”
Not only are BYU’s study abroad programs enriching for the students and faculty that attend, but this enrichment also goes the other direction.
“Even more than … the benefit (international students) get from being on campus, BYU benefits from the enrichment that they bring,” Brown said. “It’s a mutually enriching, good thing that we need.”
BYU offers many different opportunities associated with international studies not only in the Kennedy Center, but also in language classes, internships and clubs. Many of these opportunities were on display at the International Education Fair, where students could learn about programs from all across campus.
“(International education is) part of bridging that gap … exposing us to different ways to think and views of the world,” Brown said. “If we truly believe that the world is our campus, we have to have exposure to that world, and this is one of the wonderful ways you get that exposure.”