After a three-month long run, DMMMSU’s Office of Internationalization, Linkages, and Expanded Tertiary Education and Equivalency Accreditation Program (ETEEAP) concluded its first Inter-Institutional Internationalization Festival last December 3, 2021.
“The IZN Festival was conceived as a virtual meet up where motivations at engaging in academic and cultural internationalization initiatives may be cultivated and experienced realities, perspectives, and discourses of different places during the COVID-19 crisis may be celebrated by presenting them under novel formats. And, we thank everyone’s active engagement to make this a huge success!,” Dr. Jesus Rafael B. Jarata, Director for Internationalization, explained in his speech.
To realize the Fest’s aims, the grand virtual event was divided into four sub-events: The Digital Boot Camp on Essential English for Cross-Cultural Communication back in October 26-29, Voices of Hope: 1st DMMMSU International Choral Concert in October 30, Connecting Asia: Dialogues on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in November 12, and its culmination program.
Around 100 participants from 14 universities of five countries across Southern Asia participated in the Digital Boot Camp [view here: https://tinyurl.com/DBootCamp]. Participants were not only engaged in academic areas but also in intercultural activities. For four days, they celebrated their cultural diversity in the different sessions mentored and facilitated by faculty members from the three DMMMSU campuses. Boot campers actively took part in fun English games, quizzes, dancing, cheer yelling and other engaging breakout activities in this multicultural platform.
The teams also presented interesting facts about their country.
With the goals of alleviating the global audience from mental impacts of the pandemic and inviting other universities in the Philippines and abroad to share choral performances of avoidance-related ‘coronamusic’ for broadcast, the 1st DMMMSU International Choral Concert pooled together groups from the Philippines, the USA, Belarus, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Peru.
The concert [watch here: https://tinyurl.com/DMMMSUChoral] was aired via the DMMMSU Internationalization and Linkages Facebook page- and has garnered more than 5,000 views and reached more than 6,000 people.
Moreover, with over 150 registered participants from five countries, the first-ever Connecting Asia: International Dialogues on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, in partnership with Van Lang University (Vietnam), Daffodil International University (Bangladesh), Udon Thani Rajabhat University (Thailand), Universitas Tunas Pembangunan (Indonesia), and Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta (Indonesia) was successfully held via Zoom. [Read here: https://tinyurl.com/ConnectASIA]
It brought together top policymakers, scholars, managers, and practitioners from the arts, culture and allied sectors from around the Southeast Asian region to deepen understanding of culturally responsive education and the tools needed to transform classrooms and curricula that support students’ success.
The festival ended with a culmination program with invited speakers from the Commission on Higher Education, British Council, University of Eastern Finland and University of Tennessee- Knoxville (USA).
Twelve winners won cash prizes from the held international competitions
— Quaranthings, Virtual Pecha Kucha, Video Essay, and Photo Story Teller.
“The entire journey is another milestone in improving DMMMSU’s international visibility,” Dr. Jarata quipped in an interview. (Joshua Justin Lee C. Bautista)