INTO students will give presentations open to the public, set to inform students of their respective home countries.

For this week’s talk, South Korean student, Boram Kim and Saudi Arabian student, Mohammed Hakami, will be presenting about their home countries Wednesday in East Hall room 215 in the INTO Building.

There have been two sets of Cultural Series in the past, with five to six separate programs in each set.

“I would like to say that the Marshall Community benefits from this program in a way to promote cultural diversity on campus. Many INTO students come from different countries and the Cultural Series allows for those to attend to delve into the cultures being presented through different aspects: food, music, art, traditions, etc.,” Kenny Jones, INTO Student Engagement Coordinator said. “While the INTO students are here in America and at Marshall to learn English and gain an American cultural experience, I think it is important to teach each other about different cultures and celebrate where our students come from.”

The series will take place about once every week or two; right now, there are four more programs planned for this semester. The next talk will take place Tuesday, March 14 from 6:30 to 7:30 in East Hall room 215 in the INTO Building.

The program times are always 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. to allow for students to finish class so they may come to the program and set dates are randomized based on availability.

Topics and speakers are chosen based on who is in a section of the speaking and listening courses and the students who are in those courses. Any Marshall student who attends the program will be entered to win an iPad Mini.

“Part of my programming core values is to work with academics,” Jones said. “Here in the INTO Center, one of the teachers approached me about wanting to have the students participate in each other’s culture on top of familiarizing them to American culture. We both finally came up with this program idea and it went really well.”

Next Tuesday’s speakers will be students Jeremy Huang and Khalid Alshaalan, where they will be presenting about their home countries, China and Saudi Arabia.

Hannah Swartz can be contacted at [email protected].