(Photo: Benjamin Waluchio (Kenya/California) near his IEW poster during a presentation.)

World Link program hosted a competition during International Education Week in November 2014 to inspire students to take initiative and share their culture with their host communities, families and schools.

YES student Sara Malik (Pakistan/Colorado) was the grand prize winner and certainly worked hard to win this title. During IEW she was interviewed by the local gazette newspaper regarding her hope to teach Americans about her homeland. She said, “When people hear I am from Pakistan, they say, 'Oh, you guys are like the terrorists.' We have a little terrorism, but it's not the whole country.”

World Link saw how motivated she was to show the true picture of Pakistan, and not only what the media portrays on American television. Sara gave 32 presentations to over 600 people that week! She spoke about a variety of topics such as the history of Pakistan, the landscape, traditional food, music, their flag, money, sports, language, and cultural values. She wore traditional clothing, brought in traditional food, put henna on attendees, taught traditional dances, and showed how to write in her native language. Through all of her hard work, we believe Sara was able to spread her message: “Pakistan means the land of pure people, and Pakistanis are so peaceful and loving and want harmony."

YES Student Ghulam Murtaza (Pakistan/California) was a finalist in the competition for being a great ambassador of his native country of Pakistan. He gave 28 presentations that week and made it his personal mission to help Americans truly understand his country. He spoke about cultural aspects such as Pakistan’s climate, food, sports, holidays, and famous people. One aspect of Pakistani culture that most Americans do not understand is the religion, so Ghulam made sure to focus one whole day of presentations on Islam. After presenting, he asked what the audience thought about Islam; it was their positive responses that kept him motivated and excited.
 
His enthusiasm was clear, “During International Education Week, I tried my best to change people's negative perspectives about Pakistan and I changed their thoughts. Now many [people] know what Pakistan is really like, and that it isn't what the media always shows them. This week had been awesome, because it was a time when I had to be a real ambassador; so it was an awesome experience.”

Benjamin Waluchio (Kenya/California) won the last finalist position in the competition in recognition of his great effort to make all of his presentations memorable. He worked very hard during the week and gave a total of 20 presentations to various classes in his high school, a local elementary school, and even a Mormon Church. He challenged himself by cooking a large batch of ugali for his cluster’s IEW kickoff event, he brought in artifacts along with traditional fabrics, necklaces, currency, and videos about bull fighting in Kenya as well as traditional dances. He also wore his traditional clothing and sang his national anthem.

At the end of the week, Benjamin took a moment to reflect on the week and realized that his audience was not the only one changed by all of his hard work, “International Education Week is now over for us. I look back at this week, at all I did and I am proud of myself. I feel it helped me grow, and realize there is still space to grow even more.”