The Center for Global Studies (CGS) at Penn State is dedicated to the growth and support of global studies. The center engages in various outreach activities in which I have been very involved with this semester as an intern. One of the most exciting events, in my opinion, is our World Stories Alive! Tales in Many Tongues program, where guest speakers read stories in their native language to the children of the community and their parents. This is a weekly event and we have an average turnout of fifty people, which is relatively high for something of this nature. I believe that exposure to foreign languages at a young age is crucial, and this is an amazing opportunity the center provides for the community.
Another outreach event is the annual teachers’ workshop, which allows local K-12 teachers to participate in a day-long workshop where they learn methods to include global studies in their curriculum. Moreover, the CGS hosts various lectures relating to global studies at least once a week, where speakers come not only from Penn State, but from universities across the state and country.
The highlight of my internship experience was this year’s Touch of Culture event. On Friday, March 23rd, the Center for Global Studies partnered with the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania (YSCP) to host the charter school’s annual Touch of Culture event. This year, the focus was on Eastern Europe. Countries including Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine were represented through traditional song, dance, garb, and food. The program consisted of a presentation on Eastern Europe, Russian poems, songs, and folktales, a Romanian poetry reading, piano performances, a raffle, and a buffet style dinner. Some dishes prepared were deruny (potato pancakes), Moldovian potato salad, Moscovite beet salad, salat iz kapusty (cabbage salad), vinegret, bliny (Russian pancakes), pierogies, borscht, and a variety of cakes and candies. The event drew around 200 people, including nationalities such as American, Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian, Indian, Bengali, Turkish, British and Saudi Arabian.
Personally, I enjoyed the event very much, as I was involved in the program and I had the opportunity to meet several international people as well. My contribution was a Romanian poem recital and a power point presentation on Eastern Europe. I enjoyed all the performances, but the one that stood out was a Russian song sung brilliantly by a ten year old girl. The audience and I were utterly impressed by her singing capabilities – it was absolutely stunning. The event ended with traditional cuisine- lots and lots of mouth-watering dishes!
A complete list of CGS events can be found on the Center for Global Studies website.