Global citizen, the first event for International Education Week took place on Monday, Nov. 16 in the Teleconference room.

Prior to introducing the event International Admissions Specialist from the Office of International Student Services (OISS) David Tilahun asked attendants to join him in a moment of silence for the victims of the Paris, France who lost their lives on Friday.

Tilahun introduced Norma Rodriguez, Director of Student Program Services from OISS.

“[…]This event is held world-wide and colleges and universities throughout the United States and the world celebrate international education,” Rodriguez said.

“We are delighted for today’s event and I think it is a very good presentation for the opening of our international education week,” she adds.

She continued,”It was a collaboration between the United States Department of State and the United States Department of Education and the focus of internationalization is on peace building, on global learning and on the economic benefit of international resources.”

Tilahun introduced presenter Dr. John Haas, professor of history, and founder of the Global Consortium for Sustainable Peace.

Haas shared with the audience, “As I was driving the car on the 605 freeway coming in I said to myself ‘John, you have 30 slides here, what is it that you want to tell these students?’

“And you get down to the nitty gritty. The nitty gritty is the fact that for me is that we need to be globally competent.'”

He also adds, “And I tell my students that for me this is not just some catch phrase that we use but we have to understand peoples’ cultures and we have to understand history and we have to speak other peoples’ languages.

“We have just seen a chaos that has taken place in Paris, France and we need to kind of comprehend diversity – but there is no total answer for what it means to be globally competent.”

Dr. Haas showed a Youtube clip titled “Is America the Greatest Country“

After viewing the clip, Haas encouraged a dialogue with the audience.

Undecided major, Christopher Rodriguez responds to the clip, “It’s true that we [the United States] are not the strongest country in the world anymore. We are not strong in science – we don’t invent stuff anymore.”

History major, Tatiana Passano also responds to the clip, “i think that a lot of our ideas are filled with too pride as Americans. Even though we are a diverse culture, I feel that some of us don’t accept that. It’s just too much pride.

“I am Peruvian and we view America as pride people. Not to disrespect America because I love this country. Just some of you guys are not the natives of this country so why are you so harsh?” she said.

Haas also showed the audience another video from usglobalcompetence.org titled “Engaging the World: U.S. Global Competence in the 21st Century.“

Students are encouraged to visit the Office of International Student Services and attend plus participate in the rest of the events on campus offered by the OISS.