Potluck date set!

Hello, everyone!

Thanks to those of you who attended the IIC Council Meeting. For those who couldn't make it, we've set the potluck date for Saturday, October 22 at 7pm. We will be feasting, catching up progress, and honoring students who will graduate this fall. Hope to see you there!

As a bonus, here are a few photos from the IIC orientation:

Thanks everyone for getting involved. Hope your quarters are going well!

IIC Calendar

Calendar Updates

Hello, everyone!

Did you know that this blog has a calendar associated with it? I will be entering quarterly events and highlights from the career center and Korbel. You can view it on this blog or find our Google Calendar under the name duiicblog. Remember to share any interesting events you may come across!

Thanks!

Hello and welcome!

Hello, everyone!

Welcome to a new year at DU! It's been a long and busy summer, but the scent of autumn is finally in the air. Are you ready for classes to start September 12?

I just wanted to give you a quick introduction to myself and this blog. I am Anna, a fellow current student and your IIC communications assistant, and this blog is a place for IIC news, reminders, stories, and similar content. I love to feature student photos of international and intercultural adventures. I will also gladly share student content, so do not hesitate to drop me a line. Soon there should be orientation photos here.

Good luck preparing for the upcoming school year, and see you today at the International House!

Hello! A few reminders for you

Hello, everyone! Are you ready for finals crunch-time to begin?

Hopefully you all remembered to register for fall classes yesterday, and to apply for graduation if you are graduating in the fall. To those graduating in spring or summer, hang in there – you are almost there!

Just a few odds and ends:

Firstly, thanks to everyone who came out to the quarterly dinner! This time we had a catered Mexican buffet complete with prettily decorated bundt cakes. We also engaged in Margie’s tradition of symbolically letting go of our old anxieties and embracing our hopes for the future. It was great to see some faculty faces and an array of significant others… thanks, everyone! I look forward to our next big dinner in the fall.

Secondly, if you are going to be here for summer, please let me (Anna) know so that I can pair you with incoming students if they visit Denver while I am away. Hopefully you’re enjoying being mentors! Feel free to refer any questions you or your students may have to Margie or me, but remember that Margie is leaving for her sabbatical in June.

Thirdly and lastly, this is a friendly reminder to stay on top of your language requirements – Susan Rivera prefers that you complete your proficiency test at LEAST one quarter before you graduate! This means that if you are graduating next winter you need to play to take your test a lot sooner than you think.

Good luck with classes, everyone!

Thinking ahead -- applications for winter interterm India program are due soon!

Hi everyone! Just a reminder from Susan Rivera that if you want to do the amazing Project Dharamsala you need to sign up soon!

Project Dharamsala: We are now accepting applications for Project Dharamsala, an International Service Learning Course that through the combination of academic study, service work, and cultural immersion explores the history, culture, and social justice issues of India and Tibet with a focus on education, religion, politics, development, and human rights issues. For more information on the program and how to apply, please join us at one of our Dharamsala information sessions held at the I House (corner of Warren & S. Josephine) Thursday, April 7 at 4:00 PM or Friday, April 15 at 1:30 PM. The last day to apply is April 25. For additional information, please visit our website:http://www.du.edu/intl/abroad/isl.html, or contact us atisl@du.edu.

Festival of Nations

Happy spring, everyone!

A lot of exciting events will be coming your way this quarter, including the Quarterly IIC Dinner on Friday, May 6 at 7pm! The location has yet to be determined but we are thinking of doing Chinese hot-pot. If you have any preferences or location recommendations, please let me (Anna) know.

Also, we need volunteers to help staff the IIC booth at the Festival of Nations! This FREE DU multicultural event will be held on Saturday, April 16^th from noon to 5pm at the Driscoll Student Center. Students who have participated in it in the past say that it is a lot of fun – what’s not to like about constant performances, booths hawking ethnic food, and excited kids? :) This event is a rare opportunity to spread information about the IIC program while interacting face to face with the DU community.

What we do is up to you, but so far we have a couple of ideas for our booth:

1.) A large map on which people can mark where they are from and where they have been.

2.) A big “peace poster” on which we write the word “peace” in as many languages as possible and have participants guess what language it’s written in.

3.) A slideshow of photos of IIC students on international travels and adventures.

Feel free to share any more ideas you have! And please drop a line if you can volunteer for an hour or so to help.

Great opportunities that involve free food

Hello, IICer's! Best of luck with finals week.

Just wanted to notify you of two delicious and fascinating opportunities coming up soon.

March's International Luncheon Featuring Greek Cuisine

Tuesday, 3/8 from Noon to 1

International House

Come enjoy Greek food at the International House on Tuesday for the monthly international meal. Sponsored by Sturm College of Law.

Kyrgyzstan Journalist Visit

Thursday, 3/10 at Noon

Mass Comm Building (I think the classroom next to the student lounge)

Professor Renee Botta encourages everyone to come to listen and ask questions to a special panel of visiting journalists from Kyrgyzstan! Curious what media is like there? Find out AND enjoy a delicious free lunch.

RSVP to Renee (rbotta at du dot edu.)

Enjyo!

Reminder of Spring Language Proficiency Exams

Hey all! Don't forget we need to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language to graduate. Here's a reminder that spring 2011 proficiency exams will be give as follows:

Friday, April 15^th, 9:30-12pm

Thursday, April 28^th, from 6-8:30pm

Friday, May 13^th from 9:30-12pm

You can only test once per quarter, so if you do not pass this exam in spring you cannot graduate until fall 2011 (no exams are given in summer.)

Good luck!

A lovely winter potluck

Hello, everyone! Just wanted to say thank you for making the Winter '11 Potluck a tasty success. We had Indian curry, Mongolian beef, Irish soda bread, stuffed jalapenos, moussaka, pepperoni bread, chips with fresh guac, a mighty desert spread and more. It was great to see most of the graduating students and fill ourselves before crunch-time begins.

Here are a few of my photos, starting with Brian, Jill and Marlena. Congrats! :)

"I'm not buying it."

Everyone --

Check out this amazing campaign being run by Traffick911.

Here is an excerpt:

"This coming Sunday, Arlington, Texas, will host the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers for Super Bowl XLV—and some 150,000 out-of-state visitors and nearly 500,000 fans from other Texas towns are expected to pour into the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area. Tragically, the city lucky enough to host the event will also witness an alarming spike in child sex trafficking over game week...

DFW-based Traffick911, the Rebecca Project and other advocacy groups are leading comprehensive efforts to protect children during Super Bowl week with their I’m Not Buying It campaign. Endorsed by well-known local stars including Dallas Cowboy Jay Ratliff, the campaign has organized an online petition to get the Super Bowl Host Committee and National Football League to sign-on to the effort to protect girls from being sex trafficked."

Sex trafficking is alive and well in America; it's good to see a powerful call to action taking advantage of the high-profile nature of the Super Bowl.

IIC Photo: India!

Recent IIC alumni Kelly Burt writes: Attached is a picture of IIC students Jillian Bird, Marlena Hartz, and Kelly Burt in front of the Taj Mahal after completing our three weeks of service learning required for Project Dharamsala during Winter Interterm 2010. Experience of a lifetime!

For more information on Project Dharamsala and other International Service Learning opportunities offered through DU, visit http://www.du.edu/intl/abroad/isl.html.

IIC Photo: Ukrainian Music Mash-up!

Here's something that you don't see everyday:

Crazy! IIC student Wendy explains:

"I attach here a photo from my time in Ukraine for the blog. It's a concert poster for 50 cent (obvious to even those who don't read Ukrainian) and I like it for the juxtaposition to the "Ukrainochka Ensemble" group to the left. I found the random woman dressed in bondage gear sort of funny. It is also significant that 50 cent played in Kyiv, as usually the only foreign acts were 80's metal bands."

Wow, talk about globalization. Keep traveling with your eyes and minds open and your senses of humor sharp, IICers!

Sustainability in London

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Wendy passed along this amazing opportunity:

"We would like to extend an invitation to you, or the appropriate colleagues on your team to attend the 2011 Redefining Value:  Integrated Reporting and Measuring Sustainability Conference. The conference, held in London on March 25th, will be proceeded by a full day introductory workshop on the Global Reporting Initiative framework and CSR ratings and rankings schemes.

This event will bring together leading practitioners and investors in the non-financial reporting, CSR and ESG (environmental, social, governance) communities to explore the future of sustainability reporting. Early bird ticket pricing ends on Friday February 4th and tickets are available for purchase here.
 
A full agenda is viewable here, confirmed speakers include:
 
Paul Dickinson, Executive Chairman, Carbon Disclosure Project
Wim Bartels, Partner and Global Head of Sustainability Services, KPMG
Carsten Ingerslev, Director, Danish Government Centre for CSR
Susan Blesener, Director, Corporate Accountability, Novo Nordisk
Toby Heaps, Co-Founder and President, Corporate Knights
Niels Christiansen, Vice President of Public Affairs, Nestle S.A.
Nicholas Robinson, Head of Reporting, BP plc
Helle Bank Jorgeson, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers
 
We hope you can join us. Please feel free to email us with any questions on the conference and workshop. For sponsorship and speaker opportunities, please email cwood@justmeans.com
 
Sincerely,
The Justmeans Team"

Chinese New Year Celebration

Hi everyone! Just wanted to pass along this exciting event. Keep checking Korbel's "daily updates" for more upcoming lectures and speakers, and the IIC calendar here.

Chinese New Year Celebration

On Sunday, January 30, 2011, over 3,000 people will descend upon DU to attend a spectacular multi-cultural event - 2011 Annual Colorado Chinese New Year Celebration: The Year of the Rabbit, 12:00 and 3:30 PM at the University of Denver, Ritchie Center


For the 8th year in a row, Denver Chinese School, an IRS approved 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, in partnership with over 20 other Asian American organizations, presents the largest Chinese New Year Celebration in Colorado featuring professional performers from China and the US. Last year, near 3000 people attended the cultural fair, sampled delicious Chinese food, and watched an amazing show. This year’s event promises to be even larger and better!


* Enjoy an one and half hour on-stage show, including lion dancing, magics, face changing, Beijing opera, Asian music, folk songs, KungFu, group folk dances and more, performed by more than ten award-winning, internationally renowned professional artists from China and the US, as well as many local artists
* Experience cultural exhibits, arts & crafts through a variety of booths and displays
* Savor authentic and delicious Chinese food
* See Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Art Exhibition by famous Chinese Traditional Brush Painting Calligraphy artist Mr. Zheng, ShanLu from Beijing
* Play various children's games
* Win door prizes brought to you by our sponsors
Ticket Prices: Senior (over 70), Children (3 to 16) or Group (20 or more) - $10 ($13 at the door), All Others - $12 ($15 at the door). Tickets can be purchased at www.denverchineseschool.org<http://www.denverchineseschool.org/> or by mail: Denver Chinese School, PO Box 631175, Highlands Ranch, CO 80163, check Payable to "CNYC".

Please call Ms. Fang Zhang, CNYC Executive Director, at 720-270-7032 for more information. Thanks and we wish you and your family a very happy and prosperous Year of the Rabbit!

Reference to the past events:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwwyx92Sd2M&feature=channel
Photo: http://www.denverchineseschool.org/CNYC_pictures/

Multicultural Opportunity

Happy Wednesday! Here is an opportunity shared by Roshan:

The Center for Multicultural Excellence here on campus offers a program every year called Voices of Discovery. It is an intergroup dialogue program that brings together (mostly undergraduate) people from diverse ethnic, religious, and social backgrounds to engage in open, honest discussions of issues and challenges of diversity. It will be a great opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the perspectives of those from different backgrounds, and if you have never participated in such an activity, I highly recommend it as it can do wonders for your personal and social development -- think of it as training in the personal and practical aspects of Intercultural Communication. The program involves 5 weekly meetings that are 2 hours of discussion (there are a few different sessions/time slots, all in the evenings) and activities hosted by a pair of facilitators from the CME, of which I am one. Pizza is provided for all of the meetings. Please visit the website (http://www.du.edu/cme/voices.html) or contact me if you have any other questions. Hope to see some IICers there!

Check it out! Also don't forget to ask Julie about conversation partners.

A snowy beginning

Happy January, everyone! We're back in session here at DU and that means lots of news and events coming your way. We should be holding a council meeting shortly and determining a potluck date (to be posted here.)

In the meantime, please share what you did over winter interterm -- many IIC students studied and served as far away as Costa Rica and India this December! Keep sending photos and tales of your experiences. Here's a few inspiring photos of Anna's from the "Culture and Politics in Costa Rica" winter interterm session.

Two-toed sloth, Manuel Antonio National Park.

Storefront, Cartago.

Poison arrow frog, nature reserve outside San Jose.

Good luck with classes and internships, everyone! Don't forget to proudly let us know if you are graduating this quarter.