The Perfect Holiday Gift!

Have you been wondering what to get a friend or business associate for New Year's? What about a Nationalities Council of Indiana calendar for 2011!

It's filled with photos of the ethnic organizations that make up the council (and stage the annual International Festival in the Indiana State Fairgrounds).

If one of them represents your ethnic heritage, great! If not, it's a reminder of the world in Indiana!

Groups featured are:
January: Barangay Club of Indiana (Filipino)
February: ATA-IN (Turkish)
March: Italian Heritage Society of Indiana
April: Indiana Partners of the Americas (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
May: Estonian Society of Indianapolis
June: American Indian Center of Indiana (Native American)
July: Society for the Promotion of Persian Culture (Iranian)
August: Indiana State Association of Middle Eastern Teachers and Dancers
September: Indianapolis Latvian Community Center
October: Circle City Lodge of Sons of Norway
November: Czech and Slovak Society of Indiana
December: Taiwanese American Association of Indianapolis

(Yes, there are more than 30 other groups -- those selected for the 2011 calendar were drawn in a lottery!)

There are a few calendars left for holiday giving! Just send a check for $12 (payable to the Nationalities Council of Indiana) to NCI, PO Box 1623, Indianapolis, IN 46206, and we'll wing one out to you -- or to whomever you'd prefer it be delivered! If you enclose a gift card, we'll send that on as well.

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Language Training Center Highlighted

The Language Training Center in Indianapolis, which offers language and culture training, interpretation and translation services, was featured in the Indianapolis Business Journal. It's owned by Martin George, a former director of the English as a Second Language program at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

He has, according to the IBJ "found himself in high demand among some of the world’s biggest athletes and sports properties, from basketball star Yao Ming and IndyCar Series drivers to the NCAA and LPGA."

Read more here.

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Cummins Expands in Turkey

Columbus-based Cummins Inc. has announced that it will break ground in early 2011 on a multi-phased manufacturing site at the Aegean Free Trade Zone in Izmir, Turkey. The company plans to first build a filtration manufacturing plant and follow with a facility to produce alternators for its power generation business.

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Foreign Language Study Gains in Indiana

A report by the Modern Language Association of America notes that Indiana showed substantial gains in foreign language study at the university level between 2006 and 2009, specifically: 26.7%.

The MLA has gathered and analyzed data on undergraduate and graduate course enrollments in languages other than English in United States colleges and universities since 1958.

Nationwide, course enrollments in languages other than English reached a new high in 2009.

According to the MLA, "In terms of ranking, Spanish, French, and German lead as the three most studied languages, followed by American Sign Language (ASL), fourth in the survey since 2006. Italian, Japanese, and Chinese come next, in the same sequence they have occupied since 1998. Arabic has jumped two positions since 2006 to eighth, now ahead of Latin and Russian, but, with enrollments at 35,083, it is closer in numbers to Latin (32,606) than to Chinese (60,976). Enrollments in courses in Korean have overtaken those in Modern Hebrew, to rank after Portuguese as the fourteenth most commonly studied language in 2009."

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Religious Violence: Myth or Global Reality?

Conventional wisdom in the west suggests that religion is to blame for many of the world’s violent conflicts. Theologian and historian William Cavanaugh (pictured) will challenge this assumption by exploring western ideas about religion, secularism, and power to discuss the idea that religion is to blame for many of the world's violent conflicts during a 7 p.m. presentation 26 January in Clowes Memorial Hall of Butler University, 4600 Sunset Avenue, Indianapolis.

The event is presented by the Seminar on Religion and World Civilization at Butler.

Cavanaugh is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., where his research and teaching focus on the intersection of violence and religion. He is the author of The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict (2009).

Respondents will be Margaretha Geertsema and Lawrence Gerstein. Geertsema is an assistant professor of journalism at Butler University. Her research draws on studies of globalization, media, culture, sociology, and gender. Gerstein is a professor of psychology at Ball State University and director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Ball State. He is president of the International Tibet Independence Movement.

(Photo courtesy of University of St. Thomas)

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ISU Officials Travel to Qatar

Three Indiana State University officials will be part of activities this week at the World Innovation Summit for Education in Qatar, reports Inside INdiana Business.

President Emeritus Lloyd Benjamin III, Associate Director for International Affair El-Houcin Chaqra and Professor Karen Liu will be among 1,000 education, corporate, political and social leaders participating in the three-day event.

The summit, sponsored by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, brings together 1,000 prominent education, corporate, political and social leaders. The Qatar Foundation invited Benjamin, Chaqra and Liu to participate in the summit and is paying their travel expenses.

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Zimbabwean Dinner

A night of authentic Zimbabwean food, dance, and music is scheduled for 5-10 p.m. 11 December in the Indiana Interchurch Center, 1100 West 42nd Street, Indianapolis. Admission is $25.

Seating is limited to 120; reservations can be made online. The event is hosted by the International Interfaith Initiative. Information, email.

Proceeds benefit the Healing Friends Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization that offers microfinance opportunities and support to families in the African nation.

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Festival Award Winners Announced

Here are the award winners for this year's International Festival, hosted by the Nationalities Council of Indiana.

Cultural Booths of NCI Group Members are judged in the following four categories:

1. THEME: Include in cultural booth historical, geographical, culinary, social or educational aspects of the particular culture. 2010 theme: Food for Thought - Tradition, Culture and Cuisine.
2. EDUCATIONAL VALUE: Provide relevant information about the culture.
3. CREATIVITY: Demonstrate an effective and enjoyable method to attract visitors.
4. QUALITY: Overall excellence. Examples would be people in native costumes and friendly approach to visitors.

First and second place winners for theme:
Society for Promotion of Persian Culture and Swedish American Order of VASA

First and second place winners for educational value:
Sons of Norway and German Heritage Society

First and second place winners for creativity:
Korean American Women’s Association and Hungarian Club of Indianapolis

First and second place winners for quality:
Camp Mabuhay (Filipino) and Swiss Club of Central Indiana

In addition, the Best Overall Cultural Booth, recipient of “The Betty” trophy for 2010:
Taiwanese American Association of Indianapolis

Food Booths of NCI Group Members are evaluated for quality and authenticity of ethnic food, appearance and sanitary conditions and overall assessment.
First Place: Indonesian Association of Indianapolis
Second Place: German American Klub

Finally (but not insignificantly), the NCI's Volunteer Service award (also known as “The Steve” trophy) is presented to the individual(s) who have demonstrated commitment to the goals of NCI and have actively worked toward their achievement. This year, for the first time, three volunteers were honored:
Josef Laposa and Frances Russell (pictured), and Charles Lindgren (deceased).

Mark your calendars for next year's festival, to be held 17-20 November.

(Photo courtesy of Ming Russell)

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IU Expands Agreements with German Universities

More than 60 years after its legendary 11th president, Herman B Wells (pictured), helped establish a "free university" in post-World War II Berlin, Indiana University announced today that it has renewed and expanded cooperative agreements with that institution as well as another of Germany's leading research universities.

While leading a university delegation to Germany, IU President Michael A. McRobbie signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Free University of Berlin, renewing a half-century of relations with that city's largest research university and expanding the partnership into new areas of cooperation -- including faculty exchanges, joint workshops and enhanced academic collaborations.

IU's partnership with the Free University of Berlin, which Wells helped found in 1948, is the university's longest-running exchange partnership, delivering German students to Bloomington and IU students to Berlin for graduate study and research.

McRobbie also signed an MOU with the University of Freiburg, one of Germany's oldest and most prestigious universities, founded in 1457.

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Indiana Tech to Recruit in China

As part of efforts to increase international enrollment, Indiana Tech reports it has entered an agreement with the Foundation for International Education to recruit students from China.

The Foundation for International Education (FIE) will recruit transfer students who have completed three years of post-secondary education in China and wish to pursue a bachelor’s degree at Indiana Tech, 1600 East Washington Boulevard, Fort Wayne, Indiana. FIE also will help identify qualified high school graduates with a similar interest, as well as potential partner universities for Indiana Tech. Under the terms of the agreement, FIE will be Indiana Tech’s sole representative in China for an initial, renewable period of 18 months.

Indiana Tech plans to recruit international students from a variety of countries by establishing articulation partnerships with colleges, developing recruitment agency agreements, and arranging exchange agreements with higher education institutions abroad. Such exchange agreements are intended to increase the university’s international enrollment, while also creating more study abroad opportunities for Indiana Tech students.

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