Embracing the Culture (ETC)

Photo Credit: Moammadali, flickr.com

At McCormick, we live in a community of communities.  Although the opportunity to listen to, learn from, and on the best of days, laugh with, one another occurs in the classrooms and hallways, deeper relationships and friendships are built not around books but over meals and through conversations and shared experiences.  As such, the Korean American Student Association (KASA) would like to invite you (students, faculty, and staff) to participate in “Embracing the Culture” (ETC), an initiative that seeks to build intentional and meaningful relationships between Korean students and their families and domestic persons and their families through pairing families/singles together to meet, eat, play, or just watch movies together on a monthly basis.

How it works: 

You (Korean or American) volunteer to be partnered with one (Korean/American) person/family for the Spring semester, meeting with your partner once per month.  The gatherings could be as simple as sharing a meal together, having a kids' play date at the local playground, or watching a movie.  All we ask is that you commit to being intentional in your relationship with the other person/family and that you meet once per month.

Photo Credit: Hamed Sabir, flickr.com

Why it's important and more importantly, why it's fun:

The McCormick community encompasses people from many countries, communities, and backgrounds, including over 30 Korean students and their families. In order to move from talking about being cross-cultural to actually being cross-cultural, we need to spend time with one another.  Making the commitment to talk, eat, relax, and play together allows us to not only build individual relationships but to also learn about persons' cultures, faith traditions, families, and communities of origin, especially people who you might not otherwise reach out to.  Plus, cross-cultural cooking, movie nights, and play dates at the park = FUN!

How to learn more/sign up:

Contact Sangho Lee (slee1@go.mccormick.edu), Angela Ryo, (eryo@go.mccormick.edu), or Kristin Riegel at kriegel@go.mccormick.edu by Wednesday, November 30, 2011.

Peace,

Korean American Student Association (KASA)