Gallery • 9 Photos

Duane Knapp

Computer science student Sweta Kashwha paints a lantern during the International Student Open House held by ASOSU in the Memorial Union on Wednesday. The open house was held to welcome all international students to the campus.

Oregon State University commenced its annual International Education Week this Monday with events organized by eleven campus organizations. 

According to the IEW webpage, the week of events is a joint initiative by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is recognized each year in the third week of November by multiple universities including OSU. 

“The goal of the [program] is to raise awareness about global opportunities for students and to celebrate the global engagement of OSU faculty, staff, and students,” said Julianna Betjemann, Global Affairs Associate from the Office of Faculty Affairs in an email. 

According to Betjemann, IEW has been organized for more than 10 years at OSU.

The first event on Monday was the President’s Reception for International Students, where Jayathi Murthy, OSU president, met with international students over coffee. She emphasized in her speech that the work done by the students of OSU in forestry, agriculture, engineering, coastal marine systems and other departments has deep connections across the world. 

“Every one of you enriches OSU, and I am so delighted to have you all here today,” Murthy said. 

Murthy recounted her own experience of boarding an airplane for the first time when she came to pursue her graduate studies at Washington State University. 

“We are here with two kinds of roles, we have a role as ambassadors from our country to the US and we have a role to communicate what we’ve learned here back to our country,” Murthy said, addressing the international students in the audience. 

Murthy acknowledged that the geo-political situation has gotten more fraught compared to when she was a graduate student in the US which in turn has affected several students in the country.

“IEW is an important annual opportunity to reflect on the importance of international engagement for ourselves and our students,” said LeAnn Adam, the Director of the Office of National and Global Scholarships in an email. 

Adam encouraged students to get out of their comfort zone by exploring student clubs and events with an international focus, and potentially considering study abroad opportunities. In addition to this she also mentioned how one can engage internationally without leaving the campus through their new campaign on Ten Tips to Internationalize Your OSU Experience.

Other events during the week include:

1. Nov 16 – Gilman Scholarship for Study Abroad Info Session from 4-5 pm at STAG 213
2. Nov 16 – Provost’s Reception for International Employees and Scholars from 5-6:30 pm at MU Main Lounge
3. Nov 17 – Luis Prato Art Exhibition Opening Reception from 4-5:30 pm on the 2nd floor Richardson Hall “Knuckle” 
4. Nov 17 – International Short Film Festival and Mixer from 5:30-8 pm at ILLC 155 Auditorium
5. Nov 18 – Thanksgiving Around the World from 4-6 pm at Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center

More details about the upcoming events can be found at https://global.oregonstate.edu/international-education-week and a compact list of upcoming events can be found at https://global.oregonstate.edu/sites/global.oregonstate.edu/files/2022-10/iew_poster_2022.pdf