Marshall University’s Office of Intercultural Affairs hosted its annual Outstanding Intercultural Students Weekend.

Outstanding minority students from high schools all over West Virginia and the Tri-State were in attendance. The purpose of the weekend is to help students fall in love with the university and all it has to offer.

“What I enjoyed most was their acceptance of each other,” said graduate student with the office of Intercultural Affairs, Shaleena Ross. “They were very welcoming and friendly with students from other high schools, backgrounds and cultures. They all kind of bonded and when they split off into groups to do Zumba, rock climb and swim. I think they realized that sometimes the differences that sometimes keep you apart in situations like high schools, will bring you together in college.”

“They looked around and saw other people, who didn’t look the same, talk the same or dress the same that were interested in the same things,” Ross said. “That, to me is the point of the weekend. To gain exposure to other cultures and to embrace the intercultural spirit that is steadily growing at Marshall University.”

During the weekend, students were able to have discussions with the dean of the college of their choice. Students had the chance to have a talk with current Marshall students where they got to ask real questions about anything college related.

“This is a big recruiting tool, it helps the recruiting office to bring in more minority students,” said intern program manager for the office of Intercultural Affairs, Lisa Allen. “I think the weekend was a huge successful. It was a lot of hard work.“

“It was hard for me to take on such a hard and stressful task that in the past my fellow coworker, Fran Jackson, did a lot of work for,” Allen said. “We did very well this weekend; it couldn’t have been done without the entire team of Intercultural Affairs, Volunteers, the deans, and Sudexo. This is a huge group effort to make a group event.”

The weekend ended with a semi formal banquet where students were given certificates for participating in the weekend.

Michael Brown can be contacted at [email protected].