USD’s diversity growing through campus events, trips

Dear Editor,

Your article “First monthly grocery store trip draws one student” by Sydney Mook (Sept. 2, 2015) undermines the efforts of Student Services in promoting diversity at USD. I want to surface few of the many initiatives led by Student Service, Center for Academic and Global Engagement (CAGE) and Center for Diversity that benefit both the domestic and international student community

In the past, many trips, such as the one in question, have been organized by the Center for Academic and Global Engagement (CAGE) and they have been extremely resourceful to the international student community. I myself have benefited from these trips for the past one and a half years.

It is important to note that the majority of international students do not own vehicles. The only way for them to fulfill their needs for groceries and clothing is by reaching out to Sioux City or Sioux Falls via the trips provided either by CAGE or Student Services.

Since the beginning of the academic year, I have observed many events happening on the campus for the benefit of international students.

To begin with, we had the Tea Time initiative by CAGE, followed by the Pick-A-Trip event to Wild Water West by Student Services and a Multi-Cultural Leadership Program by the Diversity Center. These are few of the many avenues which foster interaction between international and domestic students.

These are the initiatives that enable students to transition their life smoothly into Vermillion. The necessity of such trips would increase in near future as USD embraces more incoming international students. This new initiative would definitely shoulder the efforts by CAGE and would be beneficial to both international and domestic students.

It would be great if The Volante could do a story on the experiences of students from these trips and how USD is transforming into a diverse culture.