Festival of International Students at the Penn Museum: October 14 |
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Students and scholars will be welcomed to Philadelphia on Friday, October 14 from 5 to 7 p.m. with Philadelphia Mayor Kenney among the host of dignitaries to offer welcoming remarks.
As the nation’s first World Heritage City, Philadelphia has a rich history, international roots, and wide-reaching global connections. Nowhere is Philadelphia’s global reach and diversity more evident than through the international students and scholars who come to the city and region to further their higher education, and in the process, to enrich the communities where they reside.
The Penn Museum continues its 47-year tradition of hosting a free, museum-wide special reception for the region’s international students and scholars at the Festival of International Students.
Participating colleges range from nearby Temple and University of the Sciences to Arcadia, Philadelphia University and St. Joseph’s University.
The Penn Language Center and Penn Global at the University of Pennsylvania, Global Philadelphia Association and Campus Philly, are the major sponsors of the event, which annually draws hundreds of international students from all over the world.
A Warm Welcome from the City
Jim Kenney, Philadelphia’s new mayor, will join in the festivities, offering remarks about Philadelphia’s growing role as a global city. Dr. Julian Siggers, Penn Museum director, and Peter Longstreth, president, Consular Corps Association of Philadelphia, are among the other speakers offering welcoming remarks at 6 p.m.
Diverse Cultures in the Spotlight
The Festival of International Students features music and dance by a range of international student groups, as well as opportunities to meet and mingle throughout the international galleries of the Penn Museum. The Penn Lions lead a Chinese lion dance parade into the third floor galleries at 5:15 p.m. Guests can enjoy Middle Eastern dance and drumming (Penn Yalla), Latino dance routines (Temple Esencia Latina), a fusion of modern and African Music (University of the Sciences’ Culture Shock), (Tír na nÓg) Penn’s Irish dance troupe, and traditional Chinese dance (Penn Chinese Dance Club).
Guests can play Global Passport Interactive Bingo, take a mini salsa dance lesson, and express themselves with a temporary language or ancient symbol tattoo.
Students can find other guests from their native country at a large scale map of the world, where everyone has a chance to mark their home and look for others from the same country or region at the global meet up.
Penn Museum’s International Classroom, Penn and City Connections
During the reception, guests can learn more about how they might become involved in the Penn Museum’s International Classroom program. Since its creation in 1961, International Classroom has helped students, teachers, and families learn first-hand about other cultures by providing World Culture workshops at the Museum or in schools. An outreach component includes sending speakers to libraries and retirement communities, while a virtual option features workshops through the Museum’s distance learning studio. Currently, International Classroom presenters hail from countries near and far, including China, Greece, India, Japan, Brazil, Morocco and Kenya.
“International Classroom is an open invitation for international students to help promote intercultural understanding, whether they’re here for a semester or 20 years,” said Hitomi Yoshida, diversity programs manager at the Penn Museum, and a principal coordinator of the event. “We meet many interested students at this annual program.”
Cultural organizations, performing arts groups and businesses around the city welcome the students and share information at tables in the Museum’s Chinese Rotunda.
For more information about the event, or to learn more about the International Classroom Program at the Penn Museum, call the Penn Museum’s Learning Programs department at (215) 898-4066. |
