http://nwsdy.li/1lw8j2xMultilingual masters recognized at Adelphi University
Newsday
Originally published: June 26, 2014 9:49 PM
Updated: June 26, 2014 10:09 PM
By
ZACHARY R. DOWDY
International students Tamara Anaie and Joagni Pare, of Burkina Faso,
are part of the Chinese group who are now on the stage practicing their
speech at the Performing Arts Center at Adelphi in Garden City on June
26, 2014.
(Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams, Jr.)
To Tamara Anaie, whose family fled an anti-Christian
crackdown by Saddam Hussein when she was 6 months old, language holds
the power to help heal even a country as riven as Iraq.
"We fled
because of religious persecution," Anaie, 19, of Sparta, New Jersey,
said at Hagedorn Hall on Adelphi University's Garden City campus. "That
enabled me to really want to pursue international law, mainly so I can
speak for those who really don't have a voice."
Anaie is one of 60 students from 26 countries who gathered at Adelphi
Thursday to be recognized as winners of an international essay contest on the role of multilingual ability in global citizenship.
The contest drew more than 1,400 entries from 128 countries.
The catch was that the writers had to write in a language other than
their native tongue and in one of the six official languages of the
United Nations, which is a sponsor of the Many Languages, One World
contest. Those languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian
and Spanish.
Anaie, who studies at Montclair State University in Montclair, New
Jersey, chose Chinese -- one of five languages she's fluent in. She said
she wrote about fleeing Iraq and her subsequent interest in
international law.
"I need Chinese because Chinese is the No. 1 spoken language in the world," she said.
Anaie
and the other winners, many of whom were in the United States for the
first time, practiced presentations of their essay topics at Adelphi.
They arrived
Wednesday and are slated to showcase their work before the ambassadors of the UN General Assembly
Friday as part of a youth forum.
The contest is made possible through a partnership of ELS Educational
Services Inc., the United Nations Academic Impact program and Adelphi.
"Adelphi
has had a long relationship with ELS," said Peter DeBartolo,
administrative director of Adelphi's Levermore Global Scholars Program,
adding that the school is also closely affiliated with the United
Nations, where it is accredited as a nongovernmental organization.
Adelphi regularly hosts speaking engagements by UN ambassadors and
envoys, and hosts forums on global issues. Adelphi students attend
events at the UN.
"Global learning is in the mission statement of the university," DeBartolo said.
Joagni Paré, a native of Bur-kina Faso and a student at National
Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, wrote about how having learned Chinese
helped him understand his own West African culture better.
"I'm confronting myself with a new culture," he said. "It's like a mirror."
Paré, who speaks English, German, French, Chinese and his homeland's
five languages, said he is encouraged by the business partnerships
developing in Africa between China and several other countries, adding
that he would like to play a role.
He aspires to work in international relations, perhaps as an official
of the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF -- or as
secretary-general of the UN.
"They need people who can serve as a bridge between the African and Chinese market," he said.
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