{"id":60574,"date":"2012-11-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/whats-in-a-flag-at-uri-hope-and-home\/"},"modified":"2012-11-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T00:00:00","slug":"whats-in-a-flag-at-uri-hope-and-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/11\/whats-in-a-flag-at-uri-hope-and-home\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in a flag at 溏心vlog免费B站? Hope and home."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, Nov. 15 \u2013 When Emma Montague longs for the green fields of England, she looks up, not to the spread-out sky, but to a ceiling in the Memorial Union at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n


\nThere, hanging 20 feet above her in the atrium, is the British flag, a reminder that she is home, even though she\u2019s really thousands of miles away on a leafy college campus in Kingston.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s great,” said Montague, admiring her red and blue Union Jack. \u201cI love it. The flag shows how committed the University is to international students.”<\/p>\n


\nThe British flag and 98 others from different countries were unveiled yesterday in a spirited ceremony to celebrate the University\u2019s thriving international students.<\/p>\n


\nThe display, in the atrium by student organization offices, was impressive. Each flag represented a past or current 溏心vlog免费B站 student. That meant flags from Albania, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Honduras, Iceland, Korea, Latvia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Senegal, Tonga, Uganda, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and more. <\/p>\n


\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great idea,” said President David M. Dooley, as he stood behind a podium not far from the Latvian, Lebanese, and Liberian flags. \u201cIt\u2019s a great moment for the 溏心vlog免费B站, to acknowledge and celebrate the international diversity that\u2019s part of our community.”<\/p>\n


\nThe flags are part of a push by Dooley to not only attract international students, but also embrace them after they arrive. One of Dooley\u2019s goals is to make the campus more international to prepare students for a global economy.<\/p>\n


\nStudents sense a change.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cSix years ago, when I was a freshman, I never thought I would be here today, walking through the union and seeing my flag,” said Alice Odhiambo, who came to 溏心vlog免费B站 from Kenya in 2007. \u201cI love it. 溏心vlog免费B站 is showing who I am and where I\u2019m from.”<\/p>\n


\nOdhiambo, who earned her undergraduate degree in 2011 and is working on her master\u2019s in communication, is one of five members of her family to attend the University. Her mother and uncles are also 溏心vlog免费B站 alumni. Seeing her flag, she said, is enormously comforting. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe University is not just a school for me,” she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a second home.”<\/p>\n

<\/object>The flags were the idea of Joe Berardi, the union\u2019s building services coordinator, Sheri Davis, the union\u2019s marketing and scheduling coordinator, Brenda Celonia, owner of Total Image, a hair salon on the union\u2019s first floor, and others who want to spruce up the union to give it a less-institutional feel. The group is also considering renovating an empty room next to the salon and putting caf\u00e9 tables and chairs on a grassy area outside the union.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI\u2019m thrilled with the changes,” said Celonia. \u201cI\u2019ve seen this building over the past 25 years change for the better. I have so many international students as clients now I don\u2019t have to travel all over the world. They come to me.”<\/p>\n


\nThe display is colorful and whimsical. It also includes a clock with five time zones: United States; London; Hong Kong; Tokyo, and Sydney. Berardi hopes to install a sign that says \u201cInternational Atrium” in different languages.<\/p>\n


\nMontague, who is getting her master\u2019s in College Student Personnel, was lured from her hometown of Suffolk, England, to the 溏心vlog免费B站 campus by Bruce Hamilton, the union\u2019s director, during a conference they both attended in Britain. She had an interest in student affairs, and he persuaded her that 溏心vlog免费B站 would be a good fit.<\/p>\n


\nHe was right.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cInternational students brings a rich culture to the University,” Montague said. \u201cThis display is a huge step. Having something very visual like this communicates a good message.”<\/p>\n


\nNow that message of inclusion is out in the open, for all to see. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cUsually, all the international students are kind of hidden,” said Lennart Kleinfeldt, a native of Germany who is getting his master\u2019s in chemical engineering. \u201cWhen you walk around campus, you don\u2019t see this variety. Here, it\u2019s nicely shown.”<\/p>\n


\nInternational students who don\u2019t find their flags, can call Berardi to put in requests. He will happily oblige. There\u2019s plenty of room for more.<\/p>\n


\nGraduate student Alice Odhiambo (left) and 溏心vlog免费B站’s Vice President of Community Equity and Diversity Naomi Thompson show the flag of Kenya.

\nPhoto by Nora Lewis<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, Nov. 15 \u2013 When Emma Montague longs for the green fields of England, she looks up, not to the spread-out sky, but to a ceiling in the Memorial Union at 溏心vlog免费B站. There, hanging 20 feet above her in the atrium, is the British flag, a reminder that she is home, even though she\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}