Foreign exchange students Michelle Parreira and Sherfis Ruwer dance during a Brazilian dinner, Oct. 23, 2013, at Holden Dining Hall. The event featured food, music, and dancing native to the Brazilian culture. Danyelle Morrow/The State News
To spread culture from one nation to another, eight Brazilian exchange students organized a week of activities to share music, food and history with MSU students and faculty members.
As part of the Brazil Partnership Program scholarship, exchange student Marina Santos said she and seven others were asked to host a week of events in South Neighborhood to give the MSU community an authentic Brazilian feel.
The event presented a chance for MSU to expand students’ cultural views of the South American country.
The festivities started Monday with a showing of two Brazilian movies.
It will wrap up Friday with a festival in the Wonders Hall Kiva, where there will be, food, music, dance workshops and a presentation explaining the history of Brazil.
Wednesday’s Brazilian Week event offered authentic Brazilian food with various dance presentations in Holden Dining Hall.
To plan the events, the students met with MSU’s Residential and Hospitality Services, or RHS, to talk about possible ideas.
From there, the crew spent three weeks organizing the events for Brazilian Week.
“It’s our first time here at MSU, and we just sat down and thought about what people would like to know about Brazil,” Santos said.
In each campus neighborhood, MSU holds a week of events for whatever foreign exchange student population is heaviest, said Danielle Moore, an assistant community director for Residential and Hospitality Services in South Neighborhood.
“We want to give them the chance to feel like they’re at home and give them a chance to celebrate their culture,” Moore said. “For those who are native students, it’s a change to show them what Brazilian culture is like.”
Exchange student Marcos Ferreira said he attended the Wednesday Brazilian Week event to watch the dance presentations and to have dinner.
Ferreira said the music and dances performed were specifically from his home city, located in Bahia, Brazil.
“I’m feeling really good, because since I arrived here, this is the first day I can eat beans and rice exactly the same we eat in Brazil,” Ferreira said.
Wednesday’s event helped lifelong education student Naomi Aicken learn more about Brazilian culture in a fun and engaging way.
“It’s a great way to get an insight on someone else’s culture and to eat their foods, and experience their dancing and music,” Aicken said.
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