International Cultural Festival

　　The idea of International Cultural Festival that came to my mind was on last October, especially after the ranking of Canadian universities from Mclean’s came out.

　　Last October, I had been in University of Windsor for 6 months. I heard that U of W has the most population of international students in Canadian universities before I came here. So I guessed that there must be lots of activities for international students. But I did not see too much about these during the past 6 months; probably, it is because I spent 4 of 6 months in summer.

　　Personally, I am a transfer student from George Brown College in Toronto. There really are some activities for international students every year, even though it is a college. All international students like them. Also I heard from some other universities, they do have different kinds of big international events for international students, also for local students every academic year. I do believe U of W should have the biggest international event every year, because we have the most population of international students. Unfortunately, we do not have! I was thinking that we should have one now.

　　I do not really care about the ranking made by McLean’s. But I felt that the whole school was talking about it, all my professors, my classmates. Even though there was a seminar holding by school faculties to talk about this. This thing strengthened my idea to hold an international event in U of W.

　　At 3:00 am, the early morning of January 6th, I sent an email (another attachment) to President Ross Paul telling him what I was thinking. When I woke up at 9:00 am, I received the replied email from Dr. Paul. He wanted to see me to talk about this. I was so excited.

　　January 14th, I went to Dr. Paul with my friend Yang Xiaodong. Dr. Paul was really concerned about our proposal of International Cultural Festival. He liked the idea very much. We decided to do this after Chinese New Year Party, which is another big event held by Chinese Students & Scholars Association (CSSA). I believe we definitely can have this done with Dr. Paul’s support!

　　After Chinese New Year Party, I met with Joanna Chan (Volunteer International Students' Assistance) and Cheryl Henshaw (Human Rights Office). They all were interested in the idea and the proposal. Then, we started to work together about this. During the process, we did encounter some difficulties. Such as there are only one more group joined us, after UWSA helped us to sent an email to all clubs. I even wanted to give it up. But Joanna and Cheryl persuaded me to continue, and they also get more people involved, like Malaysian students. Joanna and Cheryl contributed great efforts for the event.

　　Now, we have many international students, different cultures, and supports from many people. We do believe this event will be successful at the first time, and International Cultural Festival will become an annual symbol event for international students in University of Windsor.

　　Let’s celebrate it together at 11:00 am, on March 23, 2004, CAW Common Area.

　　Thanks Human Rights Office, UWSA!

　　Groups:

　　Chinese Students & Scholars Association

　　Forum of Indonesian students

　　Human Rights Office

　　Indian Students Association

　　Malaysian student council

　　Taiwanese Students Association

　　Volunteer International Students' Assistance

　　We are getting more…

　　Written by: Ping Qiang Zhang (The President of Chinese Students & Scholars Association)