Connecting African and African American Students' Lives Through Performance

This project brought African and African American students together to research their shared cultural origins. It also sought to strengthen the relationship between these two groups of students in order to better integrate the African students into the community and to increase the satisfaction and retention of both groups.

The project culminated in two performances that told the story of the history, traditions, and shared cultural roots.

The objectives of the program were to:

• Increase the interaction between African international students and the African American students to better integrate these international students into the U.S. culture, as well as educate African American students about the origins of their traditions;
  
• Foster greater connections between selected university faculty and staff and students of African descent through collaboration over the period of the research and performance;
• Create a lasting link between the International Student Office and the Multicultural Affairs Center to serve as a heightened resource for students and the community; and
  
• Expose primarily rural middle school children to information about African and African American traditions through various learning styles.