| International Education Week
AYA would like to thank all FLEX students who took the time during
International Education Week 2004 to talk to other students in their
community about their home country!
All AYA FLEX students were required to write an essay and submit
photos of their experience during International Education Week.
We received many wonderful submissions and had a very hard time
selecting just two entries to post on the web.
Congratulations to Viktor and Abai for their wonderful work!
International Education Week Winner Viktor Namyotkin
Viktor Namyotkin (winner)
Home Country: Ukraine
Host City, State: Houston, TX
I made two separate presentations. The first was to my Physics
class (juniors and seniors), and the second to my Algebra Class
in Waltrip High School (sophomore and juniors). I included in my
presentation topics such as "Basic geography of Ukraine",
"History of Independence", and "the current political
and cultural situation". Cultural elements I used for the presentation
were the national Ukrainian music and dress, Ukrainian teenage music,
my photo album, and posters of famous Ukrainian churches and places
of interest.
I believe this presentation was helpful to my audience because
it was the first time they heard about the Ukraine. They realized
how important it is in our time to know more about different countries
and their cultures. They saw a part of life "behind the ocean".
I was impressed by the reaction of my classmates after the presentation.
Many of them wanted to be exchange students to the Ukraine! Others
had the idea of organizing a Ukrainian national dance group. The
overall response was very encouraging and motivates me to do more
specific presentations in the near future.
International Education Week Runner Up Abai Iliyazov
Abai Iliyazov (runner up)
Home Country: Kyrgyzstan
Host City, State: Gardendale City, AL
My presentation at Gardendale High School. I have been eager to
share about my homeland whenever and wherever possible, but I did
not have any idea when and how to do it. International Education
Week was a great opportunity to do it. All the letters and instructions
that I received in my mailbox were very helpful to put everything
in order. My neighbors and my host family were glad to help me prepare
a good presentation program. Beautiful transparencies were prepared
so that I could show the audience the pictures of Kyrgyzstan on
Big screen. They also made very significant suggestions in organizing
my presentation, so that my presentation would be not only informative
and educating, but also entertaining and interesting.
At school, I did my presentation in all my classes. The teachers
were glad to give me half of the period for my presentation. In
general, my presentation included transparencies, national clothes
and musical instruments and it was almost the same in all the classes.
Since my classes and my classmates were different, each of my presentations
had something different for that particular class and audience.
In all my classes I told about history of Kyrgyz people, culture,
modern life, today's appearance and activities of people. I also
sang a song with my national musical instrument "komuz"
and described school system.
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