Among the buildings at SFCC, none is more diverse than the Student Union Building. Just walking into the building’s main hall presents a glimpse at the diversity that is held at SFCC. What professors Darlene Rickett and Gabriel Valenzuela hope to bring to the SFCC community during February is more of an in-depth look at the many different types of cultures and people within those cultures who reside here in Spokane during Intercultural Week.
Intercultural Week is occurring from Feb. 24 through Feb. 28 with presentations occurring in the SUB lounges A, B, and C at times 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30 A.M. Each presentation lasts around 50 minutes.
The main goal of the week is to focus on bringing intercultural awareness and competency to our campus each year with many different speakers from all different backgrounds. As Rickett, one of the heads of the Intercultural Week committee says, Intercultural Week focuses on that particular outcome, bringing awareness and competency to the Spokane Falls community.
Intercultural Week is featuring many different presenters from all different backgrounds with the intent to highlight people on campus and those in the larger Spokane area. A lot of the speakers, in fact, are promoted or brought on by clubs, according to Rickett. She said that the goal is to get clubs to be as involved as possible.
For example, the French Club has invited a World War 2 veteran who is from France to speak during the week. In addition to this, there is a group of students from Tunisia, Africa, from the international program here on campus who have volunteered to speak as well.
Professors from SFCC will play a big part in Intercultural Week as well. Astronomy professor Michelle Moore will be speaking, as she details her trip throughout South America with her husband she embarked on last year. Sociology professor Ping Ping has invited a Chinese-American presenter to do a presentation titled, “Returning Home: A Chinese American’s Perspective on China.”
Intercultural Week has been going on for about 20 years here at SFCC. Its roots lie in the International Club, as one of the previous advisers of the club was the first person to set it up.
Years passed, and eventually Intercultural Week became too big for a club adviser alone to set up, and thus, Intercultural Week was taken up by the Diversity, Equity and Global Education Committee, gaining its own sub-committee now headed by Rickett and Valenzuela.
Intercultural Week aims to bring everything from “general information and awareness to seeing something from a different point of view,” Rickett said. On top of this, Intercultural Week intends to not just give information but, as Rickett put it, “to pique an interest, give a connection, and allow us to shift into being able to see things from different points of view.”
When asked about Intercultural Week, two students in the SUB, Rickett estimated that between 100 and 200 students attend yearly.
Despite what many may think about our smaller city community, especially when compared to large metropolitan areas like Seattle, Spokane is actually a very diverse community, as Rickett pointed out, and “(t)he reality of it is, we really have a lot here, and that’s what I want people to see.”