More than 150 international students from all over the world gathered on the Erb Memorial Union’s East Lawn to attend the American English Institute’s first ever summer concert. The AEI is in the linguistics department at the University of Oregon. AEI and the UO work together to help international students succeed in their studies and learn English. With minimal assistance from their supervisors, 72 students enrolled in AEI’s summer volunteer program put on the event.
“This was all their idea,” AEI program coordinator Zach Benedict said.
Benedict put Brazilian international student Daniel Caldas in charge of managing his classmates for the event. Caldas said he organized events for his peers when he lived in Brazil.
“I like doing this. I like organizing things and getting people to work in a group,” Caldas said. “It’s just kind of my thing.”
Through asking questions and discussing plans with his classmates on the AEI Facebook group, Caldas and his 71 classmates were able to brainstorm together and get to know each other.
“The volunteer group is a great thing for international students that are coming here because we can organize events like this and forces us to interact with each other,” Caldas said. “Everyone’s here to make friends, especially in the international community.”
Caldas said AEI intergrates with organizations around Eugene. After working at the Food for Lane County kitchen earlier this term, the AEI students agreed to make the suggested entry fee of the concert two cans of food for Food for Lane County.
“We already had this event and it’s a good cause, so we asked for people to bring food because we just want to help,” Caldas said.
Saudi Arabian international student Abdulmohsin Abusaq and a few of his friends found out about the event through an announcement online. Like many of the international students that attended the concert, Abusaq said he saw the event as a chance to practice his English.
“We’ve been looking forward to this day because we get to work on English conversations with other international students.” Abusaq said.
The concert came at a great time Abusaq said, because some of his friends are leaving at the end of the summer term and it was a good way to say goodbye to them.
“I got to mingle with them and it’s fantastic really,” Abusaq said.
The AEI volunteers were able to get Off the Waffle to sponsor a “waffle decorating contest” while local band The Zendeavors played live music.
“For a lot of the students just being able to come together in a big group is fun,” Benedict said. “They’re just so hungry for interaction.”