Far From Home for the Holidays

Posted on December 24, 2008 - Permalink
Audiences: Current Students Faculty and Staff HomePage Trustees

Students from around the world attending Bridgewater State College were the featured speakers at the First Friday of Service event held earlier this month in the Adrian Rondileau Campus Center.

First Friday of Service is an informal, drop-in program sponsored on selected Fridays by the college's Community Service Center. It is especially geared toward those who are looking for a way to make a difference while staying on campus.

A different topic is explored each month, ranging from social justice, to an environmental issue, to a local charity.

Diane Bell, director of the Community Service Center, and her colleague Sarah Buckley, welcomed students from Brazil, Cape Verde, China, England, Ireland and Japan - plus a number of American students - to the event, which included a luncheon and the opportunity to write holiday greetings to children who are undergoing treatment in hospitals in Providence and Boston.

Also greeting the students was Mary Delgado, assistant to the vice president for external affairs, who told the attendees, "We want today's event to be a sharing opportunity, so we've invited several of our international students to tell us about holiday traditions in their home countries and several of our American students will also share stories about how we celebrate the season in the United States."

Mrs. Delgado said the college presently has nine international partnerships.

"The good part about our exchange program is that we have the chance to welcome students from all over the world to Bridgewater, who come to study for a semester or an academic year or longer, and at the same time more of our BSC students are choosing to spend part of their undergraduate years studying in other countries," she said.

Among the international students who offered presentations at the event were Yang Shang from Jiaotong University in China; Adilson Tavares from the University of Cape Verde; Lucas Silva from Brazil; Orna McLoughlin, University of Limerick, Ireland; and Ayuko Shiraishi from Kansai University, Japan. (Story and photos by David K. Wilson, '71, Office of Institutional Communications)