Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month: How does your cultural background add to the multinational U.S. culture?

Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month: How does your cultural background add to the multinational U.S. culture?

Hofstra University embraces and honors the Asian American and Pacific Islander culture by honoring it through the annual Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Attending the reception for this cultural month was a great experience filled with great speakers, music, and food. It was exciting to get introduced to the new Assistant Director of the Multicultural and International Student office, Sonia Fernandez, who introduced the musical performance of law student Tole Zacharia as well as keynote speaker Dr. Takashi Kanatsu, associate professor for the political science department at Hofstra University.

 

What cultural roots do you add to the diverse U.S culture and how much do you know and embrace other cultures?  It is the multiculturalism that makes the U.S. so special by creating such an inspiring melting pot. Keynote speaker Dr. Takashi Kanatsu certainly added an immense amount as he is the epitome of multiculturalism. Dr. Takashi Kanatsu is a native of Japan, living in the U.S., while studying and teaching about Latin American culture. He encourages his peers to not just be bicultural, but multicultural and rather than viewing life as Asian vs. American culture or in my case European vs. American culture, we should view the world as a whole and learn about many different nations and its customs and traditions. We can all learn from each other and bring new aspects from our cultures into the U.S. culture and our own. This will not just add to the diversity in the U.S, but also develop our native culture and spread our countries’ attributes for everyone to see its greatness. Particularly in the time of the Asian rise, it is interesting to learn about Asian culture and understand that there is much more to Asian culture than Chinese Food and Sushi.

Embrace new cultures and teach about yours. There is something new to learn from everybody. The Asian Pacific Islander Month has many more exciting events to offer to give you the opportunity to start right now and learn more about different cultures other than your own and the one you live in.

A warm welcome to the new Assistant Director of the Multicultural and International Student Programs, Sonia Fernandez, a great addition to our Hofstra community.