Park University’s Office of International Education hosted its annual International Festival Nov. 22 in celebration of 2019 International Education Week in the Academic Underground.

The event opened with a meet and greet where attendees viewed booths that featured handicrafts, souvenirs, symbols and maps from countries around the world staffed by international students.

After a welcome and opening remarks by Nuno Alves Primo, emcee — Park student from Angola — Kevin Vicker, director of International Education, Dr. Greg Gunderson, president of Park University, and Parkville mayor Nan Johnston, performances began, which included: Pacific Islanders, Slovak Fujara flute by Michael Kalny, Chinese songs, Irish dancers, Russian songs, a Hmong dance, a Chinese folk dance, storytelling from Israel, a Peruvian dance and music and Japanese drums.

“There are 1,600 students at Park University and 258 are international students from 50 countries,” Gunderson said. “This celebration brings a broader perspective to people and shows the importance of valuing diversity and inclusion. It gives domestic students the chance to see what the rest of the world is like and understand different cultures.”

The celebration featured Park students representing their native countries who spoke to people about the unique characteristics of their home countries.

Japan’s booth featured the slogan: “Japan, the safest country in the world.” Chile’s booth had a sign that said: “Chile, in honor of all the people who were killed, tortured and raped in the last month and those who continue to fight.”

Park student Francis Muwalo, who was staffing the Malawi booth, pointed to a photo of Lake Malawi and said, “Lake Malawi has the purest water in the world. In this lake we have over 1,000 species of fish that you won’t see anywhere in the world. Our cash crop is tobacco and we export a lot of tea. Our government is working on increasing tourism.”

The countries represented at the event included Brazil, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Micronesia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Russia, Nepal and South Korea. The university has students from 55 countries attending school.

An international buffet was featured with food from 10 countries and six continents.

The celebration ended with a fashion show highlighting native clothes from around the world.