An increasingly diverse student body has long been well-recognized as a potential treasure for universities. As a result of Michigan Tech’s constant efforts to promote diversity over 14.2 percent of Tech students, as of the fall of 2013, are international and this figure is still continuously growing.
Following the blossoming of Michigan Tech’s diversity is the question of how to integrate these differences among students from all over the world to maximize the benefits for the whole university community. Many student organizations have been working on this integration for years, but the International Club is an exceptional example of one of them.
The goal of the International Club is to promote better understanding and closer relations between international and domestic students and between the various national groups of international students themselves.
“While other international student organizations, especially national groups, mainly focus on sharing their own cultures and cultural activities, International Club aims to play the role of an integrator, uniting the diverse international and domestic communities into a big family,” said Cassy Tefft, Advisor of the International Club. “Our goal is accomplished by means of discussions and exchange of opinions among the various international groups in our regular meetings, as well as through cooperative activities throughout the year.”
With participants from a broad range of cultural backgrounds, the International Club has successfully held many campus-wide, student-oriented events, such as game night and holiday parties. Among all, International Night is the most well-known to students. The theme of this year’s International Night, which will be held on March 23, is “Travelling Across the World” as introduced by Jessie Zhang, Vice President of International Club.
“During that night, we’ll provide diverse food and fashion shows prepared by a great many of international students from various countries,” Zhang said. “The event will be a cultural feast for our audience which will enable them to travel across the world in hours. Remarkably, even our tickets are designed as boarding passes for this extraordinary travel.”
Zhang specifically recommended the music of International Night, which will combine music from different countries, all performed by ADDJ Tommy Garret, a Sound Design student. As DJ for this year’s International Night, Garret said, “It is a great experience to see so many people together and perform in front of so many international students who grew up with listening to different music.”
“This performance is a challenge but also a chance to me. People always say mathematics is a universal language, but for me, I feel music is the universal language because we don’t have to learn it and we were born with it. I want to bring people from different cultures together through my music, which is my passion,” Garret added.
While International Club, together with many other international and domestic groups, is devoting their time and efforts for the upcoming International Night, this week the organization released its first issue of their monthly newsletter – Globe. Globe is an additional effort of the International Club to arouse awareness and promote events focused on university diversity at Michigan Tech.
“The newsletter is divided into different sections for different cultures on campus. It is one of our new trials to benefit more students with the university diversity. The newsletter creates a chance to get the diversity exposed to more,” said Ashima Chhabra, President of the International Club.
It’s the rich life experiences of diverse international and domestic groups that make Michigan Tech such a vibrant and enriching campus community. The diversity deserves to be treasured because it is our academic, cultural, economic and physical differences that make us who we are. Thanks to the hard work of student organizations like the International Club, Michigan Tech students are doing so much more to foster an environment that is accepting and collaborative. Our commitment to diversity, inclusion and engagement has never been stronger.