On Tuesday, Oct. 13, Slippery Rock University hosted their annual World Languages and Culture Competition.
This event provides an opportunity for high schoolers who are taking either a Spanish or French language class to participate in activities that will allow for students to explore different cultures.
Some of the activities that were presented at this event for the students include “testing in Spanish and French,” “English workshops.” “foreign language workshops,” ”Arabic geometric design workshop” and much more.
Salwa Vandegrift, assistant professor of the Arabic program at SRU, sat down to discuss her insights as to how the whole event had gone overall, and what she had assisted with throughout the duration of this event.
“I believe it turned out very successful this year. We had 400 students this year, and sometimes we’ve even had 600 students. Everyone was very happy, everyone was very satisfied with the exams and everyone was happy with the activities. Everyone was happy with the clubs that were offered,” Vandegrift said. “They had first, second, third placements, and the Arabic Club president, Brady, taught students about the countries, and they won prizes, and we had all the flags of the countries that speak Arabic,” Vandegrift said.
“The last two years, I’ve been teaching workshops to the students, and in the past years I’ve been offering teaching workshops to the teachers as well. But this year I offered the geometric design workshop for the students,” Vandegrift said. “I also helped escort the students from and to the classroom, and I was at the Arabic Club table sometimes too.”
These events give students the opportunity to learn more about what SRU offers.
“We do consider this as one of our big service events, and it’s a good recruitment tool as well,” Vandegrift said.
