The International Classroom Connection is a program of the Minnesota International Center bringing international speakers into Minnesota classrooms to meet face-to-face with students to talk about world cultures.

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“...we have talked rhetorically for far too long about how our world has become a global village. It is time for us to prepare Americans of all ages to understand and live successfully in the increasingly complex world community.”

“There’s no consternation or condemnation here, no hate, no judgment, no ill-will – just innocence and a pure penchant to really understand their friends thousands and thousands of miles away in Asia, Africa, Central America, South America, and Europe.”

This program is designed to link K-12 students with international speakers, providing them with opportunities to learn about the world from first-hand sources.  There are two main activities that the ICC program facilitates: individual classroom presentations and World Cultures Days. 

Individual classroom presentations give Minnesota teachers the opportunity to engage their students in interactive, age-appropriate lessons delivered by trained international speakers.  These presentations often incorporate elements of culture-specific music, dance, language, folklore, geography and artifacts as a means of animating and acquainting students with other cultures.

A World Cultures Day is a half-day or day-long event, commissioned by a school and coordinated by MIC, that allows a school to unite as a community and celebrate a variety of cultures.  On average, a World Cultures Day includes between 20 and 25 international presenters from as many as 18 different countries with each classroom receiving three to four individual presentations throughout the day.

  This program is funded in part by

the Education Minnesota Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning