UMD News Releases

What:

Multicultural party, drum ceremony, Ojibway blessing, and Hawaiian music

Who:

250 UMD alumni (some coming from as far away as India, Sweden, and Hawaii) who took UMD’s Intercultural Communication class and/or Hawaiian History and Culture class.

When:

Saturday, August 23 from 4–9 p.m. Professor Michael Sunnafrank, as well as some alumni, will be available for interviews starting at 4 pm. Drum ceremony begins at 4:45 pm.

Where:

Grandma’s Sports Garden, Duluth.

DULUTH, MN — A reunion of more than 250 University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) alumni who have taken UMD’s Intercultural Communication class and/or Hawaiian History and Culture class will be hosted by UMD’s Department of Communication the weekend of August 23&ndash24. Professors Michael Sunnafrank and Ryan Goei are the faculty sponsors. The Intercultural Communication class has been taught for more than 20 years. The Hawaii class has been taught for more than 15 years.

The weekend kicks off at Grandma’s Sports Garden from 4–9 pm. The Saturday event will include a drum ceremony, as well as an Ojibway blessing of the reunion. In addition, singers and musicians from Hawaii will play with Prince Paul and the Conscious Party. There’s sure to be some serious Hula happening.

Sunnafrank selected the theme “We Remember…” as a frame for this year’s reunion. “This event is about remembering the classes, the Duluth-based intercultural class and the Hawaii class, as well as the times and the friends made. I am asking each invitee to provide a memory of the class they took, how it effected them, and how it resonates even today in their lives,” say Sunnafrank. “Nine travelers are coming from Hawaii to see the many students they have come to know and love as family. These Hawaiians are involved with the students on every trip we take to the islands. This is a major expense for them, but they are doing it to see Ohana (family) and regard this as a family reunion. Six of these visitors have never before set foot on any land outside Hawaii but are longing to see this place, this Duluth, they have heard so much about. There are many such stories about the travelers coming for the reunion,” says Sunnafrank.

For two decades, students at UMD have had an opportunity to learn from and form lasting relationships with fellow students from diverse cultural backgrounds in the Intercultural Communication course. “A third of the students who take the intercultural course are American students of color and immigrants, a third are international students from around the world, and a third are from the majority white American culture,” said Sunnafrank. Other students have had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii in January or May to be immersed in an Intercultural Communication Practicum among the varied cultures in that state.

Students of intercultural communication learn to effectively communicate and develop meaningful relationships with peoples and groups of different cultural, ethnic, religious or social backgrounds. According to Professor Sunnafrank, students who have successfully completed these courses often remark that those classes are some of the most meaningful experiences of their collegiate careers.

During the featured program, a brief tribute will be paid to Chue Vang, a former UMD student and longtime teaching assistant for Intercultural Communication classes, who was shot and killed by his father in the Twin Cities in March of this year. “Chue was an enthusiastic participant of the intercultural experience for ten years before his untimely passing,” says Sunnafrank. A place at the head of the table will be left empty in Vang’s honor.

UMD alumnus Daniel Oyinloye, who is a former teaching assistant of the Intercultural Communication class, will be filming the entire weekend. His production company, IR Media, will use the footage in a full-length feature documentary on the Intercultural Communication class, called The ICE Project (Intercultural Communication Experience).

”This has been a two-year labor of love for him. Daniel, an immigrant from Nigeria, strongly believes in the Intercultural class and wants to give tribute to what it has done through the years and to spread the message of the class so more schools can learn how to offer this very special experience. He has shot hundreds of hours of film inside and outside of four different sections of the course during the last two years,” said Sunnafrank.

The party continues a Big Feast/Talk Story Open House on Sunday at Sunnafrank’s home on the North Shore. The Sunday event is closed to the media.