In a diverse display of cultures, the Office of International Education will present World View from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday on Main Street in the Memorial Union.

Members of the Muslim Student Association, Latinos on the Move, the Arabic Club and students from Japan, China and East Africa will put their culture on display for Emporia State students to learn about.

“The world view event is an opportunity for both ESU students and international students and faculty to basically come together to learn what other cultures, other groups, and different people in the community think,” said Jason Strachota, graduate assistant in the study abroad office.

Strachota said that the event does not limit presentations strictly to international groups. Associated Student Government and the Counseling Center will also be represented.

“It’s an opportunity for anybody in any group on campus to kind of talk about themselves and to let students know about them and what they do,” Strachota said. “Not just international students, but everybody.”

ASG is one group that, while not international, will be available for students to learn about.

“We are here to offer a service to the students,” said senior political science major Jonathan Krueger, ASG President. “That’s our main job – to provide them services to help enhance their educational experience and I think communicating with different cultures and different people on campus is a way to do that.”

He said that by participating in this event, ASG hopes to develop better communication with the students that it represents.

“Diversity is everything we see on campus, and communicating in diverse ways is one area that we could improve on,” Krueger said. “I think we could do that by actually putting our face out there and showing people what it is that we actually do.”

The Muslim Student Association will also have a booth at the event, where its president, Waseem Afzal, library and information management PhD student, said they will display items including clothing, currency, perfumes, decorations and jewelry from Jordan, Pakistan and Egypt, among other countries. The items they will display belong to current or former international students from those countries who have donated them.

Afzal said that the World View Event will not only allow American students to learn about different cultures, but will also be a chance for international students to learn about American culture.

“I think this is a great opportunity to share the cultural heritage that people have from different parts of the world and is a great learning opportunity for other students,” Afzal said. “They have questions and we learn from their responses and reactions to different cultural items that we present.”

Strachota said the event will be a way for different students to interact with one another that they might not otherwise have.

“It’s a great opportunity just to learn about other people,” Strachota said. “Unless we really take the time to go out of our way, people forget to go talk to others and learn from them so this is a nice way to sort of go out of your way without having to go out of your way, to meet people and ask them questions about their culture.”

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