In part funded by:

    3M Company

    

By BILL CAHALAN — Sentinel Staff Writer

FAIRMONT — Hundreds of Fairmont children met people from across the world on Monday without having to leave town.

The opportunity to learn about other nations and cultures is being provided by the Minnesota International Center in Minneapolis.

The organization’s office is located on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus. Many of its 22 representatives visiting here from 17 countries are University of Minnesota graduate students working toward master’s and doctorate degrees. The university is on Christmas break and second semester classes start next week.

A few others are students at Macalester College in St. Paul, and a couple are students at Twin Cities area high schools.

The center representatives gave presentations about their countries when they visited classrooms Monday at the Five Lakes and William Budd elementary schools. Today, they will speak in classrooms at Fairmont Junior/Senior High School.

“It’s wonderful that people from so many nations can come together in one place and learn about each other’s countries,” said Rochelle Franzen, a fifth-grade teacher at Five Lakes Elementary School.

Franzen’s class had half-hour visits from two students from China and one student from Nigeria.

“My students are very excited about the visits and they ask lots of questions to our guests,” Franzen said. “When the world can come to your school in one day, it’s exciting. Our students learn about other nations’ languages, beliefs, clothing and food.

“These visits let our students know that the world is a small place, especially when we share smiles and good will with them,” Franzen said. “Many of our students may never be able to travel to the countries that our visitors are from, but they can learn about these countries.”

Another fifth-grade teacher, Michele Baker, also appreciated the visit by the guest teachers.

“It’s great to have students from other countries visit our classroom and share their cultures with our students,” Baker said. “My students have been so excited to hear about life in other countries.”

Two guest speakers in Baker’s classroom were Jenny Gu and Chastity Yang. Both of them are assistant professors at universities in Beijing, China. Gu teaches mechanical engineering, and Yang is an instructor in economics and statistics.

The two are “visiting scholars” for a few months at the University of Minnesota. They arrived in Minneapolis Oct. 15 and will return to China in February.

The group’s visit to Fairmont is overseen by George Hornik, the program manager of the Minnesota International Center. The visit is financially sponsored by 3M and the Minnesota Education Foundation.

The group also gives presentations at schools in Alexandria and Staples, which also have 3M plants.

“Fairmont has been a good place for us to visit over the years,” Hornik said.

“At the schools we visit, the children enjoy the face-to-face visits with the college students and hearing their life stories,” Hornik said. “We do the visits in a personal way, so that the visits stay in the children’s minds and they retain the information better. It’s better than reading about a country in an encyclopedia.”

Hornik said the visits help prepare children for the future.

“Rural communities in Minnesota and the Twin Cities and its suburbs are changing,” Hornik said. “There is an influx of new immigrants and cultures coming from other countries. In 20 years the cultural landscape could be much different in Minnesota.

 

“So if we can prepare students today to be more accepting of other cultures, they may be more open-minded to the changes they will see in their area and state.”

Copyright 2007. Minnesota International Center | www.micglobe.org

Founded in 1953 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, the Minnesota International Center is dedicated to supporting Minnesota’s growing interest and involvement in the world. Our mission is to inspire our community to understand global issues and cultures in an ever changing world.

MIC does this by providing international education opportunities to open global doors for our community, allowing the people of Minnesota and visitors from around the world to meet - both formally and informally - and learn about and from one another.

Each of MIC’s four program areas endeavors to organize and facilitate learning experiences for children and adults alike. Activities range from formal lectures to small group discussions to mealtime conversation, and occur on-site in K-12 classrooms, the workplace, homes and the community.

In 2006-07, MIC organized in excess of 1,700 activities involving more than 35,000 participants from 120 countries.

Online at www.micglobe.org.