XV, No. 2 The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Dec. 19,1995 AROUND THE WORLD mmmCL'Hd b dCiC Compiled by Maryellen Corbett and Sarah Hagevik ■ The UN celebrated its fiftieth birthday at the headquarters in New York City. Each of the 201 world leaders was given five minutes to speak about several issues, but most speakers took a little longer than the allotted time. ■ A Chechen ambush killed eigh teen Russian soldiers as they trav eled to give medical aid to other Russian troops. This event was the largest flare up of fighting since the cease-fire six months ago. ■ At a four-hour talk between Clinton and Yeltsin, Yeltsin agreed to send 2,000 noncombatant troops to aid the multinational peace-keep ing force in Bosnia. NATO insists on controlling all combat troops in Bosnia, a notion Russia rejects. ■ Clinton and China's president Jiang Zemin met for two hours at the Lincoln Center. Their talk was filled with tension, and the two nations remain intractable about issues, such as human rights, which divide them. INSIDE This Issue ♦A juggling English teacher and a Harley-Davidson riding physics teacher/ page 4. ♦NCSSM students pitch in in to make a difference in Durham on Make A Difference Day, Page 6. ♦ Reviews oi Get Shorty, Seven, Hoxo to Make An American Quilt, plus local eatery International Delights, Page 8. NCSSM and Israeli Academy sign partnership Karen Master Staff Writer NCSSM students will soon be getting a larger view of the world. A delegation from North Carolina including Dr. Steve Warshaw, Director of Academic Programs, recently traveled to Is rael to discuss how North Carolina and Israel could learn more about each other. As a part of this, NCSSM signed a deal with the Is rael Arts and Science Academy to co-develop a curriculum for teach ing tomorrow’s leaders. According to Warshaw, the curriculum would teach students to be responsible leaders for their culture in all areas—not only po litically, but also in other fields such as arts and sciences. The students would learn to appre ciate what they receive from their culture and examine how they could return the gifts. In the summer, small stu dent groups from each school would meet for a two- to three- week intense program and dis cuss what they had learned. The curriculum is still in the planning stages, and a group of approximately twenty staff members is beginning to sort through the problems. Funding for the program will have to come from private grants. It has not been decided if the class will be a day class or meet only pe riodically. Also remaining to be de- ...the curriculum would teach students to be responsible leaders for their cul ture in all areas—not only politically, but also in other fields such as arts and sciences. _cided is if the summer program will be for rising seniors or graduated seniors. If funding is obtained this year, Warshaw said that he hopes to implement the pro gram next year. The Israel Arts and Science Academy is a three year, private residential school. The students there have already chosen a career major and perform mandatory military service after graduation, therefore having different per spectives than NCSSM students. Warshaw said he believes that student diversity will make the program more adaptable to other cultures. Already, schools in Aus tralia, Jordan and Canada have ex pressed interest in joining the pro gram. Another part of the delegation agreed that a number of Israeli ar tistic and archaeological groups would visit North Carolina some time in 1997, and this may be used in the curriculum. Festival highlights "American mosaic" Monica Dev News Editor With the aroma of exotic foods, sound of ethnic music and flashes of bright clothing, the senses could be over whelmed at Raleigh’s annnual International Festival. On its tenth anniversary, the festival set out to do what it does every year: bring together as many cultures as possible. For three days, October 6- 8, groups of people from over 45 different cutures came to share their heritage with the Triangle community in Raleigh’s civic center. They sold food, cloth ing and other trinkets, and per formed dances and gave lectures as well. Food booths were set up all over the Civic Center, each selling snacks, meals and des serts from their respective coun tries. Melanie Jamogochian Mitchell, age 42, volunteered her time in an Armenian food booth. The booth was set up by the Armenian American Tri angle Association, to which all profits went. All of the work done for these booths was vol untary. “Women have been cook ing for weeks,” Mitchell said. Since the Armenian population in North Carolina is small, she viewed the festival as a good chance to teach others about the Armenian heritage and to help the Armenian community. Liem Nguyen, Co-Presi dent of North Carolina State University’s Vietnamese Stu dent Association, volunteered at the Vietnamese food booth. This was Nguyen’s second year working at the Festival. He described the atmosphere as “friendly” and said he en joys learning about different cultures while helping the Vietnamese community. The food was not the only attraction, though. The most eye-catching aspect of the Festival was the center stage. Here, people of all ages performed unique dances, originating from their own culture. Variations in culture can be observed from the dif ferent costumes, music and dance styles of the performers. They spent months preparing for this event. Nearly every cultural group that sold food and pro vided dances also had a dis- Dancers in the Raleigh Chinese dance group perform the ribbon dance on stage at the International Festival. Albert Whangbo play booth. In these booths people sold clothing, toys and games, arts and crafts and other trinkets from dif ferent countries. “A lot of the stuff was basically a rip- off,” said senior Carolyn Chu. As co-president of NCSSM’s Asian Culutures Club, she and Tak Hirata or ganized a group of students to attend the Festival. Smaller events were held in the Civic Center’s basement. These events in cluded ceremonies, language lessons cooking demonstrations, a United Nation’s exhibit, dance lessons, and folk tales. Each event relayed an important as pect of a particular culture. “[The International Festi val is] a fabulous opportunity for people to expose themselves to other cultures,” said Mitchell. “It’s very important for people to see that America is . . . not a melting pot, but a mosaic.”