English Language Fellow Sultan Stover recently organized a friendship campaign festival with his cultural studies class at the university he teaches at in Ambon, Indonesia.
The theme of the festival was discrimination. Stover and his students set up information booths and organized festival activities around this theme. They discussed how discrimination affects certain groups in Indonesia, and they brainstormed ways to shed light on its negative effects on Indonesian society. They also outlined positive solutions that the youth of Ambon, in particular the future teachers of Ambon, can implement to help educate others about discrimination.
Groups were responsible for researching and presenting information on a particular group of people that faces discrimination, as well as providing pro-active solutions to social problems in positive ways.
“Education is a fantastic tool to help and change society for the better. The festival served to help students practice their English in a context that is very different from their normal classroom interactions,” Stover said.