In many classes, students learn about globalization and the dynamic changes that occur in international relations.  However, for the College of Education, this is also a dynamic topic to consider, as many education students are concerned about how to share and teach the topic of global understanding to the next generation of students.

“Because an exponentially increasing number of students that are within the North Carolina Public School System are from another culture or another country and we want to make sure that the teachers that we’re putting out are capable of teaching [in this environment],” Caitlyn Ploughfield , a master’s student in education, said.

To prepare future educators for these challenges, the College of Education was busy during the Education Week that has just come to a close. Featured that week between Nov. 14 and 18 was the first ever College of Education International Tea and Coffee Festival which featured booths from six different countries, each with unique kinds coffee, tea or snacks.

“What we wanted to do was to have an opportunity for our students in any of our programs to showcase their own country just a time to…open students’ eyes to what’s out there,” Ploughfield , who helped organize the event, said.  “This is a kickoff event for a series of events that we’re calling ‘Cross-Cultural Conversations’ which is going to be a series of workshops in spring that will occur once a month and they’re going to different formats every time… covering different topics of diversity and culture and international issues that once college of education students get out in the teaching field they will be faced with and have to handle.”

The event brought in many students from different fields as the lingering smell of brewed coffee and tea in attracted many students to the lobby of Poe Hall.

Jessica Anstend and Nicholas Peaks, freshmen in Education, found out about this event through an email.

For Anstead , the most interesting part was the information about international experience opportunities.

“[I’m interested] mainly…to learn about international techniques and to see how we can better classrooms over here” Anstend said.

“We really like the event.  We got free food and it was also really interesting to see the all the different [opportunities the College of Education] has.”   Peaks said.

Countries featured at the event included:

Brazil Turkey China Pakistan Honduras Ghana