International Festival Encourages Culture Understanding
The Global Education Office seeks for the event to be an enjoyable and educational experience to unite the cultures on campus and in the community.
The various cultures of Mississippi College’s international students were showcased on April 12 as part of the Office of Global Education’s annual International Festival.
The festival has been held since Executive Director of Global Education, Mei-Chi Piletz, took office 12 years ago. Piletz hopes the event will continue to be an enjoyable and educational experience to unite the cultures on campus and in the community.
“They get to know each other,” Piletz said. “I have always believed world peace is based on mutual consideration and understanding. So by bringing everybody together, the local people get to understand international students and what their cultures are while the international students get to know the local people.”
Eight different nations were represented in a wide variety of acts. These segments included performances of music and dance, comedy acts, freestyle tennis, poetry reading, and a fashion show displaying traditional attire from around the world. There were also multiple performances from the Jackson Chinese School and Ballet Magnificat, fresh off their Japanese tour.
After the performances, a silent auction, made up of donations from local businesses, was held. Proceeds of the auction went towards the Platzchen International Scholarship Fund.
Participating in the fashion show and singing Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up” in both Indonesian and English was Annie Agung. Agung is the wife of MC Electrical Engineering professor Dr. Hendra Tarigan. It meant a lot to Agung to represent her home country while expressing her faith on stage through her song choice.
“It’s meaningful for my family, because God has been very good to us,” Agung said. “Sometimes in life, we almost fall down, but God helps us stand up on the mountain.”
 | A guest post by
|