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Crossroads International, Summer 2010
Crossroads Connections 444 Snell Hall
Oregon State University Phone: 541-737-3006; Fax: 541– 737-6482
oregonstate.edu/international/crossroads/
Become a member! Go to oregonstate.edu/international/ICSP/joincrossroads
A Newsletter of Crossroads International Oregon State University Spring/Summer 2010
Inside This Issue:
Dawn Moyer………...P.1 Crossroads Conversation School potluck ………………………P.1 Tate of Peru………….P.2 Spring social………….P.3 India: A Rising Power....P.4 Upcoming cultural events………………..P.4 July/August celebrations ………………………P.5 Board list & 2010-11 nominees …....................P.6 Thank You Members...P. 6
A new dawn…-Dawn Moyer This is a difficult assignment, to write about oneself, but perhaps even more so under these circum-stances. I’m wrapping up seven years with Crossroads, & I think I’ve finally just now become comfortable calling myself Director. I’ve finally come to know many of the people whose names I’m so familiar with, af-ter years of seeing them in our database, on membership & donation checks, and in occasional phone con-versations or meetings. I think I’ve also just recently come to be trusted by some who knew Susan Schwartz as the only other Executive Director, and now as we embark on yet another new period of change, that trust has to be built all over again, with the leadership to come. As my time with Crossroads dwindles (I’m finished officially at the end of this summer), I’m conscious of all that has to happen, and all that has transpired during my time with the organization. The unknowns are both daunting and energizing for me. I will gladly and passionately continue to support Crossroads, promote its programs, and talk it up all over town, because I believe in its mission and activities, and more than anything – our volunteers. The people I have worked with in all of our programs inspire me, and have made this job rewarding. For that reason, I am hopeful. As I said in the Spring 2010 newsletter article, “times change” and our organization has to as well. No longer are beloved programs fully supported by volunteers who pay “dues” to offer up their time, homes and hospitality. That fiscal model is evolving – not just in our community but across the country. Our Film Festival is part of a new effort to bring in funding, make Crossroads visible and vibrant, engage peo-ple in conversation about other cultures or peoples of the world, and get people of all ages and back-grounds involved, beyond films. Word-of-mouth recruiting still does wonders in terms of bringing volunteers and members, but it tends to select for people who, frankly, look an awful lot like everyone else here. Diversifying our membership base has long been a goal of mine, and I think should be a goal for Cross-roads long into the future. It won’t happen “organically.” (Continued on P. 4)
Crossroads Conversation School potluck-Sandy Riverman Thanks to all our wonderful students from 15 different countries, our six incredible teachers, our fantastic childcare providers, our loyal substitute teachers, & the good folks at the Church of the Good Samaritan who provide for & take care of our beautiful classrooms. We have enjoyed our Tuesday & Thursday mornings together. To celebrate the success of another year of friendship & learning, we gathered for our traditional end-of-term potluck on the last day of spring term classes. Everyone prepared an ethnic dish to share, & we all enjoyed this culinary trip around the world. One student provided beautiful back-ground piano music, & another student (who is a nationally-recognized, award-winning opera singer in Korea) treated us to her lovely songs. Another group of women entertained us by putting exercise moves to music, & the fi-nal performance was a Chinese trio of first-time-in-public singers whose sweet song brought tears to our eyes. We had special guests for this final party of the year. Beth Ray & Shelly Signs from OSU enjoyed great food & conversation. Crossroads Board members Dian Nafis, Dawn Moyer & Michelle Ribeiro stopped by to visit, & Crossroads member Nancy William was also able to join us in the fun. I would like to publicly thank the following teacher-teams for a job well done: Mitzi Schad & Joan Rodgers, Sharon Kavanagh & Barb Boudreaux, Bobbie Beck & Pat Wallace. Without the love & dedication that these volunteers bring to the school each day, it simply would not be the magical place that it is.
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Crossroads International, Summer 2010
Taste of Peru– Kathrin Klotz
A hands-on Peruvian cooking class was held on Saturday, May 2. Special thanks to Dee Curwen for allowing us to use the kitchen at the Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center, as well as to OSU student Gustavo Martinez for sharing wonderful reci-pes from his native country. The intimate setting & Gustavo’s natural style were a real treat, making all 16 participants feel included & comfortable. The menu featured an array of appe-tizers & a dessert that many of us had not tried or tasted be-fore, & they were absolutely delicious. A highlight of the event was Causa Rellena, a simple yet impressive layered dish made with beets infused mashed potatoes & mixed with a hot pep-per sauce, chicken, & avocado. (See photos below) We hope to run more of these cooking classes in the future. If you are an experienced cooking teacher & would like to share some of your culinary secrets with us, we would love to hear from you. For more information, please contact Cecilia Gore at [email protected].
Your feedback is needed -Cecilia Gore Crossroads has sponsored a number of events this year, such as the Soup Social, Taste of Peru, Spring So-cial, & India: A Rising Power. With the new school year coming & leadership restructuring, we are planning events for next year & would like to have your input. Please let Cecilia Gore (CI event co-coordinator) know about what kinds of events you would like to see more of:
Cultural Events such as India–a rising power Culinary Events such as Taste of Peru Social Events such as Soup & Spring Socials
Please send your comments/suggestions to [email protected] Also, please look for a Member Update form in your email or postal mailbox this month!
Online Information for General Members
Revisions to Crossroads’ Constitution and By-Laws were made, and are available for you to view online. We ask that interested members review the By-Laws prior
to our first meeting of the 2010-2011 year, and attend the September 13th Board meeting to vote in new Board members and approve any changes to the By-Laws.
Annual Reports by Program Chairs (Home Stays, Conversation, Friendship Hosts and the Conversa-tion School for Women) will also be available for your review. Please see:
http://oregonstate.edu/international/ICSP/crossroadsmembers/documents
NEW!
Nouveaux!
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Crossroads International, Summer 2010
Spring Social -Kathrin Klotz
Crossroads put on its Spring Social at the Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center on Saturday, May 15. This year Crossroads sponsored Bead for Life at the event raising more than $350 for community development projects in Africa. Bead for Life is a nonprofit organization which helps lift Ugandan women out of poverty by selling their handcrafted jewelry. The event featured bead making & other presentations on African culture by speakers of the OSU Interna-tional Cultural Service Program (ICSP). Yvonne Naswali, a sophomore in Business Administration, talked about her native country of Uganda & demonstrated a traditional African dance. Lily Mwandira, a sopho-more in Nutrition, entertained the guests with Malawian drumming. The program concluded with the audi-ence joining Simone Fobi, a junior in Business Environmental Engineering, to perform an upbeat dance from Cameroon. There were about 50 people attending this social event, some of whom came just to support BeadforLife by purchasing beautiful jewelry. An added benefit to Crossroads was that it signed up new members & at-tracted a number of former Crossroads program participants. African food served included Chicken Tagine, Moroccan Vegetable Stew, & Vegetable Curry, complemented with salad, cookies, & ice cream. Above all, everyone had a fantastic time.
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Crossroads International, Summer 2010
India: A Rising Power– Kathrin Klotz Over 40 India enthusiasts from all walks of life came together on Saturday, June 5 at the Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center to participate in the Worldview event “India - A rising Power”. All those who gathered were treated to an Indian cooking demonstration by Michele & Subbappa Ribeiro, & a variety of informative & uplifting presentations that provided a whole new knowledge & ap-preciation of Indian culture. Despite the diverse perspectives offered, a recurring theme was that India is a land of unity in diversity, of tradition & modernity, & of change & continuity. Speakers included Sunil Khanna, Sally Duncan, Ram Ravichandran, & Mirabelle Fernandes-Paul. Kids that came along with their parents also had an opportunity to learn about & relate to the theme of the event by engaging in fun craft projects. A reception was held at the end of the program where guests were able to enjoy tasty Indian food & drinks while socializing with each other. A large number of people worked together to make this event a success; among them were Jodi Altendorf, a Crossroads volunteer who has, once again, done a fabulous job designing our collateral mate-rial, as well as Evergreen Indian Restaurant who donated a large container of yummy rice pudding. Thank you all so much for your involvement & support of Crossroads!
Member Response: A letter from Nancy William Kathrin- I was very impressed with the (India event) pres-entations, & I enjoyed making (& eating) samosas on Saturday. I wish my husband could have attended, but he is in Ethiopia for 6 weeks on behalf of Corvallis Sister Cities. Ray lived in Sri Lanka for a total of six months with 6 host families immediately after his graduation from WSU in 1968. His exchange was sponsored by the 4-H Club, & he was hosted by Young Farmers Clubs (YFC) families in various villages throughout the country. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in horticulture & a fulfill-ing career as an extension specialist. After 3 years at the Univer-sity of Florida & 27 years at OSU, he retired three years ago. To say that the exchange was a life-changing experience is an understatement! We visited India & Sri Lanka for a month in 1975 on behalf of his work at the Asian Vegetable Research & Development Center (AVRDC) in Taiwan. In 1977, we named our daughter Kamala after a dear friend in Sri Lanka. We were able to introduce the two “Kamala’s” when we visited Kandy, S.L. in 1988, & in an amazing turn of events, we hosted her when she & her husband visited the USA in 1991. Ray made two additional trips to Bangladesh & Sri Lanka in the 1990’s. Thanks for organizing this gift to the community. I thor-oughly appreciated learning more about India.
Upcoming Events CMLC Annual “Garage Sale” When: June 25 & 26 9am-2pm Where: CMLC at 128 SW, 9th street. Money from this sale raises money for CMLC to use for operations and pro-grams. Donations and help with the sale welcomed!
International Welcome Center Where: International Resource Center (IRC) in the Memorial Union When: first weeks of September. Questions? Contact Ferdo Augusta at [email protected]
Fall New Int’l Student Orientation Monday, Sept. 20th, 8:30—1:00 pm Tuesday, Sept. 21st, 8:30—1:00 pm Weds., Sept. 22nd, 10:00—2:00 pm Volunteers are needed for Orienta-tion week. Would you like to welcome new students? Let Dawn Moyer know if you can help.
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Crossroads International, Summer 2010
A new dawn... (Continued from page 1) I have a lot of opinions, clearly, but this isn’t the avenue for a treatise on Crossroads, this time. “What will I do without my Crossroads duties?” is a fair question. It’s probably easiest to describe those things that I currently do which are not Crossroads-related. I will be stepping up some of those duties, and taking on additional responsibilities within the International Student & Faculty Services office, such as additional scholarship management, oversight of more “events” such as Orientations and workshops, assisting with the transition as ISFS and INTO OSU are merged under the same umbrella, and our up-coming move to the new INTO Living and Learning Center (Fall 2011). In the future, more programs and activities will be jointly operated between OSU and INTO OSU, and as an office we will need to con-sider how best to utilize the faculty and staff we have for some overlapping goals. More blending of INTO OSU’s and International Programs’ services will mean changes I can’t even begin to imagine, but I’m preparing myself for “interesting times,” again. Personally, I am still working part-time so that I can be there after school for my two daughters, ages 6
and 9, and this keeps me up to my eyebrows in activities such as piano, violin, choir and Thai language lessons. My husband and I have carved out Friday night as “Date Night,” and we also juggle visits with family in Texas, Ohio and other parts of the country, as well as yearly summer road trips. When we leave, we all “un-plug” for the most part, and there is nothing more important to me than that time without the busyness, the interruptions and the minute-by-minute scheduling that seem to be the hallmark of parenting these days. At least we can all four still do that, so we feel some small sense of accomplishment for just sitting and read-ing aloud, walking together, or roasting marshmallows. It’s those simple activities that I relish, and that I’d like to share with the incoming international visitors that I hope we will host ourselves, beginning this fall. That may be my longest-lasting contribution to Crossroads: I aim to become the kind of volunteer I cherish, because I’ve had so many role models come before me. Thank you all for the opportunity to serve this or-ganization. Quite simply, it has been inspiring.
Dawn with husband Nathan and daughters Sophie and Sadie
July/August celebrations
Obon, one of the most important traditions in Japan is the period of praying for the repose of the souls of one's ancestors. People believe that their ancestors' spirits come back to their homes to be reunited with their family during this period. Obon is an important family gath-ering time and many people return to their hometowns. Obon periods are nowadays celebrated at different in various regions of Japan and other parts of the world, but in most it is celebrated for 3 days in either mid July or mid August. People clean their houses and offer a variety of food such as vegetables and fruits to the spirits of ancestors in front of the family altar which is decorated with flowers and paper lanterns. People visit their family's graves and light fires/lanterns at the en-trances of their homes. During Obon, the air in houses and cemeter-ies in Japan are filled with the smell of incense called senko. Other customs of Obon can be sending lit floating paper lanterns down a river to the ocean; Bon odori (folk dance) dancing to the beat of the taiko drums; wearing yukata (summer kimono). Even though Obon is not a Japanese national holiday, people take vacations during obon so that they can visit their hometowns.
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Crossroads International, Summer 2010
Crossroads Staff Executive Director: Dawn Moyer [email protected] Note: The ED position is not funded beyond 9/1
Program Assistant.: Diana Pego [email protected] Phone: 737-5041 (unavailable summer 2010)
2009-2010 Board of Directors Chair: Michele Ribeiro [email protected]
Treasurer: Cecilia Gore [email protected]
Secretary: Kathy Moon [email protected]
Newsletter: Mirabelle Fernandes-Paul [email protected]
Membership: Urmila Mali and Amy Davila-Klautzsch [email protected] [email protected]
Home Stays: Samantha Sied, Jessica Hodgson [email protected]
Friendship Hosts: Kathrin Klotz [email protected]
Conversation school Director: Sandy Riverman [email protected]
Conversation Program (Groups): Cheryl Black, JoEllen Jarvi Cheryl: [email protected] JoEllen: [email protected] General inquiries: [email protected]
Special Events: Dian Nafis and Barb Kralj Dian: [email protected] barb@ griffobros.com
Members at large: Art Bervin, Nancy Wortman Art: [email protected] [email protected]
Please contact Michele Ribeiro to learn more about serving on the board, or to help in the transition to a new leadership structure. We can use your ideas, support and recommendations.
Lissa and Gerard Perrone Thomas and Patty McClintock Art and Marilyn Bervin Maria and Charles Tomlinson Courtland and Linda Smith John and Dorothy Fenner Ellen Borowski Peter and Mara McManus Lek Chinsangaram & Margaret Carr Judy and Marshall English Clifford and Jo Anne Trow Ronald and Ann Marek Mostafa and Naoko Shirazi Ray and Pat Schmaltz Chris and Elizabeth Bell Kenneth and Paula Krane Gary and Clara Jarman Rita Powell Linda and Kay Thatcher Donald and Joan Rodgers Martha Spitznogle Anne Swanson Lee Welch and Claudia Winter Richard and Jeanne Raymond James Simpson John & Marilyn Hull Kathleen Farnsworth Barte and Patricia Starker Charles Brunner Alice Kelling Mary Zaske Brenda and David Hamilton Kathleen Farnsworth Sandy Riverman and Ethan Wilson
George and Suzanne Smith Donald and Elizabeth Rea Ronald and Kathleen Wrolstad John and Nancy Van de Water Cecilia and David Gore Janet and Jim Swinyard Diane Nafis Rochelle Murphy Ray and Nancy William Benno and Anne Warkentin Joanne Gaylord Eloise and John Erkkila George McAdams and Dee Curwen E. Tilles Ralph and Claudia Wyatt Sharon and James Kavanagh Doris and Richard Waring John and Beverly Arthur Owen and Ruth Bentley Boyd Lyon Martha Picchi Stephen and Lynne Neville Rosemary and John Magee Jan and Bud Ames Karl and Irena Hornyik Chinh and Jeraldine Le Bibi Momsen Roger and Whitney Lindquist Gilbert and Elinor Beck Nancy Wortman Patricia Wallace Nancy and Craig Leman James and Carol Koski Harold and Judith Rudolph Susan & Robert Schwartz
THANK YOU Members
2010– 2011 Board Nominations The following vacancies and renewals are noted for the upcoming fiscal year: Board Chair: Caitlin Sullivan Member at Large: two vacancies Special Events: Cecilia Gore + one vacancy Friendship Hosts: Amy Davila-Klautzsch Film Festival Chair: Michele Ribeiro Conversation Program: Will operate as “Table Talk” (facilitated groups), beginning Fall 2010. Cheryl Black will continue to fa-cilitate, but could use additional help.
