“What are you going to do the next time you hear someone say something bad about someone who is different?” Tracee Reiser, Associate Dean of Community Learning and the Director of OVCS, asked more than seventy fifth-grade students, teachers and staff gathered for the International Children’s Expo in the 1962 Room in Cro on Friday, February 18th.
“Difference is fun!” replied one fifth-grader.
The group came from Winthrop Elementary School and the Regional Multicultural Magnet School to learn about cultural tolerance and the important role they play in shaping the future in an event titled, “Through the Eyes of a Fifth Grader, Around the World.”
SGA Chair of Diversity and Equity Pablo Tutillo ’13 initially proposed the idea through the Holleran Center’s Social Entrepreneurship Initiative Program, which gives students the opportunity to apply for a $500 grant to fund a project they believe will benefit the College and New London communities. The group also received funding from an Andrew Mellon Grant and Office of Volunteers for Community Service (OVCS).
The program for the Expo was designed to give students the opportunity to learn about three languages: one romance language, one East Asian language and one other world language. Tutillo, with the help of Amy Dooling, the Director of the Foreign Language Fellows Program, coordinated the workshops in which thirty-five Connecticut College students volunteered to lead and coordinate nine different language workshops in Italian, Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Hebrew. Each language team put together a workshop that included facts about language, culture, history and geography of its respective language. Language team members shared personal experiences of growing up in a different country or culture. They also taught country-specific lessons, such as teaching kids how to make origami, bringing in traditional toys from Mexico and Colombia and singing songs in Arabic.
The students were also able to ask questions and share their own experiences with Conn students. During the closing remarks, one student attendee said, “I liked the games in the Spanish workshop…in the Hebrew workshop we learned that you write your name backwards in the Hebrew language.” Another said, “My favorite [workshop] was the Japanese language one because we got to make rice bowls.” Another said, “I learned that in Russia, when you eat a pancake, it makes you super full.”
Tutillo began this project in hopes of inspiring his peers to try to make a difference both locally and globally. “Many students are passionate about human rights and making a difference in the world. We have the great intentions to remedy the tragedies and struggles of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti or the victims of genocide and crime in Sudan. But sometimes we don’t need a tragedy to do this – New London is a socio-economically diverse place and a number of children and young adults struggle to escape crime and other obstacles they face in schools. This is a micro-level project that is as important as saving the children in Sudan or Haiti.” •
