When an Ohio University junior was looking for an international group on campus to help him connect to his girlfriend's culture, he couldn't find one that encouraged American student involvement - so he started his own.
Me and my girlfriend
who happens to be Chinese wanted something academic and more multicultural said Alex Nickley, a senior studying international studies and the founder and vice president of the OU Sino Society. We wanted to do something that's more open.
Founded last spring, the Sino Society caters to both Chinese and American students in an effort to learn more about China's art and culture in an academic setting. The group's inaugural lecture series will continue tonight with a talk about children in Chinese art from Miami University art history professor Ann B. Wicks.
Club meetings invite both Chinese and American students to discuss culture, art, food and current events. In 2009, 270 OU students, about 1.3 percent of the student population, identified themselves as Asian American, according to the Office of Institutional Research.
There's Chinese students everywhere
but we don't really talk to them on a day-to-day basis
said Savannah Aepli, communications director for the OU Sino Society and a junior studying journalism and international studies. She is also a former Post employee. We're getting to know them on a personal level.
Many American members of the club study Chinese and others extend their interest outside the classroom. Nickley, for example, has been to China twice, while Aepli has interned for China Daily newspaper in New York City.
They do things so well. ... After the first (Sino Society) event that I went to
I was so proud to be associated with them
said Marion Lee, an OU art history professor and one of the group's advisers. I just feel that this club will help to advance both the understanding of ... Asian cultures in general on this campus
I really do.
Ann B. Wicks' lecture, sponsored by the Sino Society, the College of Fine Arts and the Chinese Students Association, will begin at 7 tonight in Seigfried Hall Room 401 and is free and open to the public.
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