The University of Georgia kicked off International Education Month today with its annual Parade of Flags. UGA students and staff walked from the Arch to Tate Plaza carrying national flags to represent their cultural backgrounds.
Niketa Nandan Roy Choudhury, a graduate student at UGA, attended the Flag Parade for the first time this year.
It’s like it feels inclusive, like I’m being part of UGA and representing Bangladesh at the same time,” she said. “So that’s all, like, a very proud moment for me.”
Choudhury is one of more than 2,600 international students from 125 different countries at the University of Georgia. And Natalie Kenny-Hall, assistant director for the Center for Global and Cultural Student Engagement, believes all of them deserve to be celebrated.
“We felt here at UGA, we were doing so much international education that it deserved its whole month, not just a week. And so since around, I think 2020, we’ve been, we’ve been doing the whole month. So to kick that off, we do two events. We do a parade of flags, and then we do World Fest” said Kenny-Hall.
International Education Month is an expanded version of International Education Week, a national initiative launched in 2000 by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to celebrate the benefits of international learning and exchange.
The Parade of Flags and World Fest are just two examples of how the University of Georgia is celebrating international students this month.
“There’s a lot of international students from different countries, and these kinds of events like, engage all of the students and let them know which country they are and their culture, so they can share their cultural things with each other,” Choudhury said “And it feels like, Yeah, I’m home. Like, this is a part of home here.”
The celebration continues on Friday, Nov. 7 with International Coffee Hour. The event will take place in the Victor K. Wilson Ballroom from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Lauren Coughlin is a senior majoring in journalism at the University of Georgia.
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