International students, Museum Studies partner on exhibit
ELI students partner with museum studies and CRM to create exhibits
'Now, We are here!' proclaims a vibrant poster.
It features the names of Michelle Kourouma's English Language Institute Speaking and Listening students written in a multitude of languages. This is just one of three projects completed by students to demonstrate their culture.
But unlike most classroom projects, this one will soon be displayed for the community.
This new kind of exhibit will be coming to The Museum of Cultural and Natural History in Rowe Hall Dec. 8. International students in the English Language Institute have partnered with the museum to display their cultures through a trio of exhibits in the main hallway.
"We came up with a plan, we're testing it this Fall, for a group of volunteers from a particular class to work with a group of our MST and CRM students to create exhibits here in our hallway about the cultures they come from," said Director and Curator of History Jay Martin.
The theme is the past, present and future of international students, with Kourouma's class divided into three groups to cover each subject.
"We are studying a number of themes and one of them is migration," Kourouma said. "These are international students, they all migrated, so we wanted to share the story of international students."
This process encourages collaboration between international students and graduates, Martin said.
Cultural Resource Management students and graduate museum employees such as Andrea Puskas guided students through the construction of their exhibits Nov. 24 in Rowe Hall.
"They created the posters to talk about their culture, we're going to be helping them install it," Puskas said. "We're already working with them on how to improve the text on the posters."
Martin and graduate students gave feedback on the posters, and were impressed with the students' progress.
"This group has far exceeded my expectations of them," Martin said.
Korean student Jiyoung Lee, a member of the "Past" group, translated her group members' names into Korean and helped to design the poster.
"We took pictures and videos as well for the project at Saudi National Day," said Saudi Arabian ELI student Mohammed Hattan. This holiday is dedicated to celebrating Saudi Arabian culture, and an event was hosted on Sept. 25 for the community.
"It was interesting to make (a project) and for others to see our history and culture," said Saudi Arabian student Mohammed Almushajrah.
"The students very organically were able to create the message they wanted to share and now they will finish next week by giving a presentation on the process and talking about what they've learned along the way," Kourouma said.
