ESU Celebrates the World with First Ever Global Week

One hundred students from 21 countries around the world walk the campus of East Stroudsburg University every day. Inside a Stroud Hall classroom, individuals of many different ethnicities work alongside one another, including Hispanic, African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Caucasian.

“It’s like a big potluck in a small university,” Binetou Fall, a senior majoring in business management who is originally from Senegal, Africa, said.

With a desire to laud the diversity on campus, East Stroudsburg University will host its first Global Week from April 2-8.

“We wanted to bring the campus something unique, something international,” Fernando Alcantar, associate director of student engagement and chair of the Global Week committee, said. “Global Week will celebrate the fullness we have in our family at ESU.”

With a goal to expand knowledge of the world, Global Week events will embrace cultures from many countries.

A world fair will encourage individuals to experience different parts of the world through informational booths, performers, cultural food and unique attractions, including camel rides.

The Holi: Festival of Colors will introduce the campus to the ancient Hindu religious festival that is a spring celebration love, frolic and colors. To celebrate, participants will throw powder into the air and shower others with color.

“This experience will be unlike any other,” Iqra Mahmood, a junior majoring in psychology from Sugarloaf, Pa., said. “It’s important for students my age to know what else is out there in the world.”

The week’s events will not just focus on what is in the world today; they will also illustrate the tragic events that happened in history.

A Field of Flags Ceremony will include a display of 2,300 flags, placed around the sculpture known as “Stonehenge” or “Stroudhenge” in the front of ESU’s campus. Each flag represents 5,000 people who were executed during the Holocaust between 1939 and 1945 in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. The ceremony, led by a local rabbi and community members, will acknowledge all the groups of individuals targeted by the Nazis.

Sylvia Kagan, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, will come to ESU to share her first account experience of endurance and bring the tragic history of the Holocaust to a new generation.

“It’s important to explore the great lessons of history which have defined our species through adversity, achievement, and exploration,” Alcantar said.

Global Week will display important issues that continue to impact the world today.

The Tunnel of Oppression is an interactive event intended to highlight contemporary issues of oppression, including mental illness, race, homosexuality and domestic abuse. Participation stimulates thoughts, feelings and emotions around the issues and images portrayed.

“To me, diversity means accepting everyone for who they are and who they want to be,” Alexis Serrano, a junior majoring in communication studies from Easton, Pa., said. “That’s what this week is about— it shows that at ESU you do not have to be afraid to be yourself.”

All the events during the week are open to the public. The cost for registering for the Global Week 5K is $15 per student, $20 per ESU community participant and $25 for community participants. The ISO Spring Festival costs $5 for community members. All other events during global week are free of charge.

For more information about Global Week and for the full event schedule visit esu.edu/globalweek or contact Fernando Alcantar at 570-422-3384, or falcantar@esu.edu.

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