Our mission
As AIC educates more than ten nationalities every year the need for the organization of an International Festival has become evident. We felt that the cohesion between our ethnic groups could be grown by an event where each nationality represented by any number of students in AIC would be given equal opportunity to show their traditions. We, who wanted to make it all happen, know very well that there is no mutual understanding in the world without understanding each other’s different cultures.
We are partly counting on the involvement of our students, especially in the secondary section, and on the contribution of current and returning EFP students from last year, led by Mr. Milutin, as well as on the assistance from supporting cultural institutions and embassies.
Preparations for the ISF-2, 2023
The organizers felt the initial steps of the preparations this year easier compared to the first ISF, as AIC can already rely on its contacts built systematically by the Amb. Kovács János and the Cultural program Manager, Iván Katalin with several Cultural Centres and Embassies last year. Besides the refreshment of old contacts, finding new ones and informing them about the purpose of the event has been the main task this year. As a result we can count on the participation of the Hungarian Embassy of Venezuela as an addition to the Korean, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese and the Turkish contacts.
As an additional task launching the organization on five fronts with the participation of each nationality, 14 this year, has become an ongoing task.
These fronts are as follows:
-exhibition of traditional articles on ‘nationality stalls’,
-providing ‘stage performances’,
-offering national foods on the ‘stalls for culinary items’ by the students,
-making workshop activities at the ‘stands for national activities’,
-and ‘national sport activities’ in the school yard.
AIC students are involved and organized by their mentor teachers who try to encourage their nationality group designated to them on each front above. It is nice to see that this year there is a much higher level of participation and willingness to participate from the high-school students than last year. It is no wonder, as the great success of last year’s ISF and the discussion of the connected promotional videos in class have had a noticeable positive impact on our teenage students.
While the main organizers are making decisions about the financials, the length of each performances, ordering new roll-ups for the new nationalities represented this year, or finalizing what wonderful folk items, pottery or folk dress can be borrowed from different Embassies and Cultural Centres for display, or how to divide the school yard for different national sport activities, mentors lead the rehearsals after rehearsals which hopefully become more and more fun and seemingly strengthen the bond among the members who are brave enough to entertain the audience.
A few details about the day of the ISF-2
The 14 nationalities represented by AIC students in 2023 are as follows: Cameroon, China, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Korea, Nigeria, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela, Vietnam
The announcer, Steve Szabó, will tell some interesting details before each performance.
After the President, Mr. Shahrokh’s opening speech from 10.00 the performances of different nationalities come in sequence on stage from 10.15-13.00.
Lunch break will be between 13.00-14.00
Knowing that a country’s cuisine expresses cultural identity, AIC invites its guests and students for lunch in the school canteen, which will be temporarily turned into the venue of a small World Cultural Food Festival. Here every invited guest can enjoy free samples of Vietnamese, Syrian, Chinese, Russian, Indian, Egyptian, Hungarian, Nigerian, Iranian, Venezuelan, Italian and Korean food thanks to our students (and their mothers) and our external supporters from different Cultural Centres and Embassies.
Afternoon activities will last between 14.00-16.00 at ‘stands for activities’ where learning traditional handicrafts and games will be an option for each visitor and student.
In the meantime AIC will provide outdoor sport activities as well in the schoolyard, which will hopefully become the same fun for the interested visitors as last year.
Conclusion
In the history of AIC, ISF-2 means to be a continuation of the tradition that AIC wanted to start in 2022. This event will always characterize our principles:
Sustaining a strong cultural identity is a key component of social and emotional wellbeing, while the deeper understanding of different nationalities can hopefully promote peace and friendship among different nations.
