On Friday, Penn Abroad and Penn Summer Abroad collaborated for the Inaugural Travel Arts Festival.
Held in the Fox Art Gallery in Cohen Hall, the festival showcased photographs, videos and stories from students’ travels abroad.
College junior Melanie Young began the event by describing her time in Ghana. She started a weekly girls’ club to give young schoolgirls a way to voice their opinions. “School isn’t a given for so many people in this world,” Young said. ”[The club] definitely made me more connected to people all around the world.”
Afterward, a few dozen people admired photos in the gallery and watched five videos from student experiences in Botswana, France, Spain and South Korea. College junior Zoe Gan attended the Cannes Film Festival this summer and included footage from the event. College senior and former Daily Pennsylvanian staff member Quan Nguyen spent his entire junior year in Seoul, South Korea and showcased his encounters with Korean culture through a video montage.
Penn Abroad Resources Coordinator Anna Spadafora worked with International Internship Manager Cara Bonnington from Penn Abroad and International Programs Coordinator Sarah Mullen from Penn Summer Abroad to organize the event.
“We thought it would be a great collaboration between the programs,” Spadafora said, because the groups are usually separate. In past years, a photo contest targeted photos from study abroad trips and has been hugely popular. Spadafora, Bonnington and Mullen wanted to create an alternate venue through which students could display these photos.
The Travel Arts Festival concluded with stories from College sophomores Luisa Patino and Rachel Buff. Patino ended with a description of her time in Tours, France and the close bond she still shares with her host mother.
Buff shared a piece of creative writing about her love for Swedish culture. “I fell for Sweden by accident and have been in love ever since,” Buff said.
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