To honor its diversity and celebrate culture, Tyler Junior College hosted its 32nd annual International and Passport Day on campus on Tuesday.
“TJC is a surprisingly international community college,” said Jamie Bitzenhofer, chair of government and economics at TJC. “We have students from all over the world and faculty from many different places too.”
This free event was started in 1992 by Dr. Manoucher Khosorowshahi, where the objective was not only for students, faculty and the community to get to know other countries but for the students to talk about their cultures.
“We want to kind of represent that and show how incredibly great it is to have all of these different people here showing their backgrounds and what they can bring in terms of different interesting things and perspectives,” Bitzenhofer said.
There are around 150 international students representing at least 50 countries at TJC.
“We have representation all over campus,” Bitzenhofer said. “Just in my department alone, we have a faculty member who grew up in Germany, we have two people from Iran and we also have someone from Trinidad.”
Tables included artifacts, traditional snacks and even some clothing of each country’s cultural heritage. There were representatives of the respective countries who spoke to attendees, educating them about their country.
“Seeing my home country of Argentina makes me very proud,” said TJC student Maike Tiemersma. “I feel especially proud when I see our flag hanging with the other flags.”
Tiemersma said she was born in the Netherlands but both of her parents are from Argentina.
“We are very warm, welcoming people as you can see on the table,” she said. “You can see that we have a lot of everything: ice, landscapes, beaches… our grounds are very rich. We have this tea called maté that we drink in Argentina … it’s what really unites all the Argentinian people together.”
Marshall Purvis of the Native American booth provided Native American art collections.
“I’m a lover of art and culture and things like that,” said Marshall Purvis of the Native American table. “The artwork, I’ve always gravitated towards it.”
He is a part of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
“My grandma always told me, especially as a young kid, to be proud of being Choctaw,” Purvis said. “It’s important. And I think growing up in East Texas, I wanted to see more of that and that’s what I’m kind of bringing to TJC and the community … with this booth and presentations.”
Marlondos C. Fields, founder and curator of Yesterday’s Tomorrow African American Mobile Museum, headed the Africa booth, which was filled with rich culture from Nigeria, Congo, Zimbabwe, Libya and more.
“It is very important to know the contributions of Africa, of African Americans… Black contributions,” he said. “We want to make sure that those contributions aren’t erased from history … that’s why this International Day is so important.”
Fields is from Florida but has called East Texas home since getting out of the military in 2012.
“International Day is a great opportunity to recognize that each one of us is entitled to know our origin,” Fields said. “We better know to come together on what we all need to do to be better humanitarians for this world, to be able to do what God’s purpose of us being here … to utilize our talents, treasures and time.”
Entertainment for International Day included bagpiper Jimmy Mitchell; Larry Yazzie, a Native storyteller and dancer; Rabbi Neal Katz with Songs of Israel; TJC student Caleb Fisher on the Spanish guitar; TJC Dance, Ballet Folklorico and West African Traditional Dance; and the TJC Apache Pan Steel Drum Ensemble.
With the help of the U.S. Post Office, TJC’s Passport Day wanted to make sure students were introduced to the accessibility of traveling.
“We want to help our students, and the community, to learn more about the world around them and have an opportunity to get interested in traveling and learning about new places and cultures,” Bitzenhofer said.
International Day is held in conjunction with TJC’s Arts Festival, an annual month-long celebration of TJC’s fine and performing arts programs.
The event has been on campus for more than three decades and is attended by hundreds of students and community members each year.
“We get people from different schools, we get homeschool students, of course we have our own students and we also get family members of people who are representing a table,” Bitzenhofer said. “There’s all sorts of people who come through those doors and it’s great to see so many interested in the cultures that are represented here at TJC.”