10-Day International Symposium to Pair TSU, Colombian Students in Cultural Immersion Exercises

NASHVILLE (TSU News Service) – For the second year in a roll, the Office of Diversity and International Affairs will host a weeklong symposium on global perspectives and cultural awareness, under the theme “TSU Without Borders.”

The symposium, to be held on the main campus in the Research and Sponsored Programs Building March 8-17, will bring together 10 university students from Colombia, in various disciplines, who will be paired with 10 TSU students on research projects to be presented at the symposium.

According to organizers, the symposium is part of the University’s “cultural immersion initiative” also called CI2, intended to challenge the students through 10 days of intense research, studying, sharing and social activities.

As the second phase of a research project under the Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship Program, the symposium follows a Jan. 10-19 visit by 10 TSU students to Medellin, Colombia, where they were paired with their South American counterparts on a joint-research project.

“The purpose of their research was to outline the need to consider cross-cultural dialogue about competing conceptions of leadership, creativity and sustainability,” said Mark Brinkley, director of International Education at TSU.

Calling it an innovative collaboration between higher education institutions, Brinkley said the project is aimed to promote academic exchange and collaboration between TSU and Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia.

The South American students, mostly of indigenous Afro-Colombian heritage, are from the University of Antioquia, the National University in Medellin, and the Technological University of Chocó. They were paired according to their gender and research area of interest, according to Brinkley.

As part of their U.S. visit, the Colombian students will tour cultural sites in Memphis, including the Civil Rights Museum, to be sponsored by The Links, historic Peabody Hotel, Beal Street, as well as tour the Gaylord Hotel and the mall at Opry Mills in Nashville.

For more information go to https://www.tnstate.edu/diversity/ or call 615-963-5640.

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