The university is hoping that a series of events slated for this month will help dispel stereotypes and educate students on the different cultures of the school’s international student body.
International Education Week, beginning Nov. 15, will benefit the university and international students, said Phil Bonfanti, director of MSU’s International Services Office.
About 600 students from over 70 countries are enrolled at MSU, he said.
“The best kept secret on campus is the international community and the talents they bring here,” Bonfanti said, smiling.
Accepting and enrolling international students also serves to give different cultures a more accurate view of the American culture, he said.
Stereotypes come from lack of understanding, Bonfanti said, and interaction provides students with the opportunity to overcome these misconceptions.
The activities will actually be stretched over a two-week period. Saturday’s Diwali Festival officially kicked off the event.
Bonfanti also said there will be International Games, cosponsored by the ISO and Recreational Sports, beginning on Nov. 9 with opening ceremonies at the Sanderson Center.
These games will be Olympic-type games, he said, with 120 students representing 19 different countries. The games will be held for 10 days, ending on Nov. 18 with closing ceremonies also at the Sanderson.
Beginning Nov. 15, the Rev. Carmelo O. Diola, a politically active priest from the Philippines, will visit different organizations on campus and will end his visit with an International Understanding Lecture Nov. 19, Bonfanti said.
Also speaking will be President Charles Lee, Vice President for Student Affairs Bill Kibler and Kiwanis member David May.
The International Understanding Lecture will be held at 10 a.m. in the John Grisham at Mitchell Memorial Library, May said. Diola will be lecture about the relations between the Philippines and the United States.
“We need candid and unbiased observations of ways to improve relationships between the United States and other countries,” May said.
Diola’s visit is a gift from Kiwanis to the university, thanking the university for its cooperative relationship with the Kiwanis during basketball season, May said.
Kiwanis are allowed to run concessions at the coliseum during basketball games, and those proceeds go toward the Kiwanis service budget so they can continue their services in the community, while the university is provided with dependable concessions workers.
Diola was selected after being nominated by Zenaida Magbanua, a Filipino student majoring in molecular biology, who received a $1,000 scholarship from the Starkville Kiwanis.
Magbanua said Diola has been a champion for humanitarian rights. One thing he has done is set up computer stations for overseas workers in the Middle East and Asia to communicate with their relatives in the remote areas of the Philippines, and Magbanua said she knows these places have difficulty with communication.
Magbanua was impressed with his credentials, she said, after hearing about him from a fellow student. He met the criteria set forth by the Kiwanis, she said, and she was happy just to have her nomination accepted.
Magbanua said she will be present for his lecture on Nov. 19 and she hopes the event might become an annual occurrence.
“I just hope that the people attending the lecture will understand the complex relationship between the Philippines and the Americans, which started when the
U.S. bought the Philippines from Spain in the 1800s,” Magbanua said.
Students who made nominations had to be of the same nationality as the person they were nominating, May said, and the nomination were open for students to nominate any leader in their country, whether a government, religious or any other type of leader.
Diola has been politically active in the Philippines, pushing for the election of quality political leaders, fighting the blight of illegal drugs, May said. Diola even prevented the impeachment of a judge who was fighting against the influence of illegal drugs in the Philippines, he added.
May said the Kiwanis were impressed with his record, and they feel fortunate to have him visiting for the week. Diola received an education in the U.S., he said, but returned to his own country to make a difference there.