Students discovered the world Monday at Connors State College.

International Day at Warner International Day at Port
Students discovered the world Monday at Connors State College.

Monday April 4th marked International Day at Connors’ Warner and Port campuses. Students set up booths representing 11 countries, plus Native American cultures.

CSC’s global education chairwoman, Shiranjini Threadgill, said this is the college’s first international festival. She expects it won’t be the last.

“Every student who comes out of Connors is a global citizen,” she said.

Threadgill, who teaches math at Connors, said students in her different classes set up the booths. Students learned about the countries their booths represented.

That included the United States. The USA booth, at a Port Campus atrium, featured a chart of state flags and religious flags, baseball mitts, and lots of cookies.

Krysta Aich, a sociology major from Muskogee, said she didn’t know the Stars and Stripes “changed so many times” since it was created.

Achie Jean Chapman, who helped Aich with the USA booth, said he learned that many religious denominations have their headquarters in the U.S.

“And I’ve learned that when people are properly motivated, we can show our individuality and work together,” Chapman said.

Aich said she learned about other countries as well. Other students had set up a booth focusing on England.

“I’m not a big Harry Potter fan, but I learned Harry Potter was from London,” Aich said.

Yvonne Roman of Muskogee set up a booth about Mexico, where her parents are from. She said she hoped people would learn about the Mexican culture.

“We want people to know they are very loving and caring people,” said CSC graduate Bryan Cole, a native of Russia’s Siberia province who now lives in Wagoner.

Threadgill dressed in a purple sari, representing her homeland, Sri Lanka. A booth about India and Sri Lanka compared the countries’ different modes of dress, different foods, and different faiths.

Cultures represented at the Warner campus included United Arab Emirates, Chile, Ireland, Pakistan, Costa Rica, Germany, and Australia, she said.

Threadgill used International Day to “encourage students to study abroad,” she said.

Students had just returned from a Costa Rica trip, she said. Other students visited Great Britain. Trips to Italy and Ireland are planned, Threadgill said.

“We want to expose students to international studies,” she said.