Kicking off International Education Week, The Center for Global Learning and Engagement along with registered student organizations such as the Ivorian Association, Team Global and African Students Association hosted the International Education Week Football Tournament.
Students from all over came out to not only participate, but also to watch the game, which brought different cultures together.
International Week does not just include bringing attention to study abroad and UCA’s international students but also “includes our global connections that are being built through education, academic collaborations as well as research opportunities,” International Student and Scholar Services Coordinator, Nicolette Dacke, said.
Each year, throughout the week different activities and learning opportunities are put on by the center as well as international RSOs.
“This is one of the first events for National Education Week. This has been an event that we’ve been doing because soccer is big around the world. It’s a great way to get players together and have a friendly competition,” Azat Kossanov, president of Team Global said.
Dacke also said that soccer is picked for the first event as it is one of the top sports around the world.
“This gives our students an opportunity to come and play a little friendly competition with each other and to just have a great time celebrating something that culturally connects across the continents,” Dacke said.
Two teams competed to walk away with not only an overall team trophy but also individual trophies for things such as best goalie and best sportsmanship.
At the end of the tournament, the team representing The Ivorian Student Association walked away with a clean sweep of the awards.
“It was hard at first because the other teams were very good too. We kept missing some really good opportunities, but we scored one goal and we won the game,” Al Siddick Diallo, who played on the winning team, said.
While there were single awards given, Diallo said that it was a collaborative performance and more teamwork than one player.
Teamwork does not stop after the game.
With a full week of events, RSO’s are working together to bring their favorite food, movies, music and overall culture to UCA.
Kossanov said food will be highlighted in The Christian Cafeteria Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday during lunch and ending the week off with a Thanksgiving style dinner welcome to all.
The next event for International Education Week is a Global Expo to be held on Old Main Lawn in front of the Library on Tuesday Nov. 18 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
“We have our Global Expo where we have all of our student RSOs and clubs come together that are representative of a different country or culture than ours here in America, and a tabling event to introduce to the UCA campus who they are, where they’re from, and what they’re about,” Dacke said.
“We’ll be having French tables, because in [several countries in] Africa we speak French, so students from all over the world can come and we can teach them French. And we’ll be having another table to showcase our culture,” Diallo said.
“We want to have International Week as a place where students could share their culture, connect with others and also for domestic students to learn about international culture in different places. We feel like it’s a great way for our international students to bring that connection to campus,” Kossanov said.
To learn more about the Ivorian Association, African Students Association, Team Global or international studies visit CubConnect for upcoming events for International Education week.
