In order to share food, culture and traditions and help combat holiday homesickness, the International Student Center has teamed up with the Center for Diversity and Unity to put on a Thanksgiving dinner for Weber State University students. The dinn
er will be held today from 4-7 p.m. in Room 404 of the Shepherd Union Building.
Morteza Emami, director for the International Student and Scholar Center, said the center has put on a Thanksgiving dinner for international students since 2004, but this year, it has teamed up with the Center for Diversity and Unity.
“The idea behind it is to kind of give a presentation to the international students about some of the cultures of the United States,” Emami said. “Thanksgiving is pretty unique to here — I know Canada has one as well, but not quite the same — so kind of acclimate the international students to the cultures here.”
In addition to sharing American culture, Emami said, the dinner serves another purpose for students here on their own.
“They don’t have their families here,” Emami said, “so the majority of them won’t have a place to go have dinner on Thanksgiving when everybody else is having Thanksgiving dinner.”
Ryan Smith, the celebrations and traditions chair with the Center for Diversity and Unity, said the diversity center is helping with the event because it gives students and international students the chance to mingle and share cultures and traditions.
“For the most part, we do home-meal food for them,” Emami said. “I cook a couple of turkeys, and we do roast beef and all the trimmings that go with Thanksgiving dinner. We provide that to them.”