Students and faculty were treated to a night of culture, food, and conversation at this year’s International Dinner.

International Affairs and the Multicultural Club held the dinner on Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. in the Latour Room at the Nazareth Student Center.

According to Nancy Maloney, associate director of the International Affairs office said that the dinner is organized by students and was a bit different this year.

“We didn’t have a big dinner this year,” said Maloney. “It’s more light fair.”

Students like Lyesha Fleming, grad student, public administration and social work major, who attended the international dinner found the event to be interesting.

“I believe that new insight on various cultures, new insight on what it means to be an international student here at Marywood and the challenges and resilience of many individuals as well makes this event interesting,” said Fleming.

Dr. Alexander Dawoody, Ph.D, Fulbright Core and Specialist Scholar and associate professor of Public Administration, spoke at the event and shared his knowledge of cultural diversity and his experiences in other countries with the audience.

“This event is important because it brings out more awareness of cultural diversity, interconnectedness, building bridges, and appreciation of the uniqueness that each one of us has earned the appreciation of the global village that we live in,” said Dawoody.

Dawoody spoke about the 14 countries he has visited as a tourist, some for conferences, some for teaching, and the last three he visited were for his Fulbright scholarship.

Some of the countries that Dawoody spoke about being Kazakhstan, Honduras, Azerbaijan, China, Spain, Morocco, Russia, India, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey.

In the Fall 2014 in the magazine of Marywood University, Dawoody said the “Fulbright scholarship involves learning about other cultures and introducing the American culture and values to them. It is about building relationships to foster peace, cooperation, and shared values that will continue beyond the period of the scholarship.”

Dawoody said that the dinner provides attendees with an important lesson.

“I think that one thing to take away from this is that each society and culture has its own uniqueness and we should look at what separates us and learn from this,” said Dawoody.

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