International connections at KU

On Saturday, my friends and I spent three hours at a square dance awkwardly bobbing and weaving to the sound of banjos and fiddles with twenty students from Kanagawa, Japan.

Last Monday, I spent an hour chatting with a group of students and scholars from South Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina about daily life here as compared to their home countries.

Some of the most amazing people I have met at KU have been Applied English Center students, and I didn't even know they were on campus until I began working there last year.

This was taken at last year's goodbye party for a group of students from Kanagawa, Japan, who we still keep in touch with. The Applied English Center has given my friends and I the opportunity to hang out with people from places I never would have imagined.

Every semester, between 150-200 students and scholars arrive to KU's Applied English Center from all corners of the globe, and for some reason, we never really hear about them. That's because they spend their days in separate classrooms and even go on separate field trips.

I think it's time that we know more about the Applied English Center students here at KU, and I propose creating a blog that would tell their stories - where they come from, what they study, what brought them here and what their impressions are of Lawrence and KU.

My idea is to select students from different regions of the world and do short profiles about them, including external information about their countries, personal interviews and footage, and their perspectives on life in Lawrence. I would also include information about special events on campus that would give the community a chance to interact with these students.

To direct traffic to the site, I would start by talking with international student organizations like AIESEC and ISA, and also talking to international studies professors about promoting the blog to their students. I could also talk to the Applied English Center about maybe putting a link to the blog on their Web site.

This blog would be another way to connect to KU's large international community - over 1,500 students - and it would be informative, interactive and fun to read for anyone interested in learning about making global connections right here in Lawrence.