Editor’s note: The following is an article created in a collaboration between The Voyager and the Intensive English Program for International Affairs, under the instruction of Yen-Shan Lien and the editorship of Jessica Voigt with the advisement of Will Kennedy and Willie Tubbs. The deliverables in this series were the products of a team of international students who used their multimedia skills to tell the story of the recent campus Global Block Party.

Just like in previous years, the tables about different countries in this year’s Global Block Party were still presented by international students, especially IEP students.

Maybe you don’t know what IEP is. The full name of IEP is the Intensive English Program, which aims to provide high-quality English courses for students from different countries, helping them improve their English.

IEP students come from many countries, including Brazil, Panama, Vietnam, etc. They all have their own goals to learn English well.

Let’s go behind the scenes of the Global Block Party and find out about IEP students’ unique perspectives.

Before the party

During the preparation, the IEP students showed how they organized and prepared their ideas to explain their countries to all the UWF students.

One of the interviews we did was with a C1-level student from Ecuador. He shared some really unusual facts about the volcanoes. 

“[It’s] crazy because some people get surprised because we can live at the bottom of the volcanoes and we don’t care about that. We are not afraid of that,” Jacob Garnica said.

It’s interesting when you learn about other countries, and soon we would enjoy the presentations of all the different countries.

Gallery • 6 Photos

During the party

After days of preparation, the day finally arrived, and the event started with great excitement. IEP students were delighted to show their work and talk about their own countries.

One of the largest groups of international students who took part in this party is from Panama. They exhibited and explained some representative elements of their

country. 

“Congo Queen’s Crown is used to represent a strong woman who guided her people in the liberation from slavery and it is interpreted in a dance as a fight against the Spaniards,” César Chérigo, an international student from the B1 class, said.

Thanks to this event, the IEP students were able to show their traditions through presentations and performances. 

“I chose this song because it was the first song that I danced to when I started to dance in 2008 and I have no idea what this song has that transmits a divine feeling that makes me believe Viva Panama is a wonderful song to feel proud of being Panamanian,” Randoll Gálvez, an IEP student from B1, said.

Highlighting the diversity of students in the Global Block Party, we learned some fun facts about IEP student’s countries.

For example, do you know where in Europe the biggest collection of wines is located? 

“I come from the Republic of Moldova, that it is a small country in the central part of Europe between Romania and Ukraine…The most representative [product] is wine” Nicolae Lungu, an international student from B2, said.

After the party

Although happy moments are short-lived, they last long enough to be unforgettable.

The party is over, but IEP students remained enthusiastic and happy with the skills and knowledge acquired in holding another year of this event.

When talking to some IEP students, they recalled how important and enriching this opportunity was.

“I really enjoyed learning more about different countries, their culture, music, and different aspects of their traditions,” Victoria Zapata, a student in the C1 class from Panama, said.

Garnica added his impressions at the end of the event, saying, “I felt very happy, grateful to be able to participate in an event with [students from] more than 20 different cultures.”

The Global Block Party was an unforgettable experience that brought international students together to share their traditions and cultures with enthusiasm and pride.

If you didn’t participate in this party, we invite you to the “Coffee Hour”, where students from all over the world spend a pleasant moment getting to know each other at the International Center from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm every Thursday.