See our right-hand column for announcements and news briefs. Scroll down the right-hand column to access the Archives -- links to articles posted in the main column since 2007. See details about our site, including a way to comment, in the yellow text above the Archives.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

MTU to host Chinese Night Feb. 13

HOUGHTON -- Michigan Tech's Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) invites the local community to celebrate Chinese Night on Friday, Feb. 13. The event will feature cuisine, music, folk dance and fashions representing the People's Republic of China. The Chinese Students and Scholars Association represents over 370 Chinese students and over 30 faculty and staff from China.

The event will begin with an authentic dinner prepared by Chinese students and served in the Memorial Union at 5 p.m. Cultural dances and music performances will begin at 8 p.m. at the Rozsa Center.

Tickets, $12 for students and $17 for the general public, are available at the Rozsa Box Office, in Fisher Hall from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and at the Memorial Union from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost includes both dinner at the Memorial Union and the show at the Rozsa. Tickets for the performance only are $8 for the general public and $7 for residents of DHH, McNair and Wadsworth who bring in their lucky bag (distributed by CSSA on Jan. 24).

Visit the MTU Box Office Web site for purchasing online tickets.

MTU's T.E.A. group to hold fundraising bake sale for Central Asia Institute school projects Feb. 13

HOUGHTON -- Students from T.E.A. (Taking Education Abroad), Michigan Tech University's new student organization raising funds for Greg Mortenson's schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, will hold a bake sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 13, in the first-floor lobby of Fisher Hall on the MTU campus.

Proceeds from the bake sale will go to the Central Asia Institute (CAI), founded by Mortenson, co-author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time. After MTU students read the book through the Reading as Inquiry program last summer and heard Mortenson's presentation on campus, a group of them founded a chapter of T.E.A., a non-profit student group with chapters in several Midwest universities.*

Last week the MTU Chapter of T.E.A. raised $250 for CAI, added to $170 they raised recently from a pop-can drive in the dorms.

"We plan to hold more pop-can drives, possibly every other week," said Travis White, president of the MTU Chapter of T.E.A.

In addition, several T.E.A. members will visit South Range Elementary School next week to give presentations on "Pennies for Peace," a fundraising project for elementary school students, started by Greg Mortenson's mother, an elementary teacher.**

Editor's Notes:
* See our recent article, MTU's T.E.A. group to raise funds for Greg Mortenson's schools in Pakistan, Afghanistan for more information about the founding the MTU Chapter of T.E.A.

** Visit the Pennies for Peace Web site for more information about this organization.

Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute has built more than 70 schools, especially schools for girls, in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. To learn more about Greg Mortenson and his work, visit his Web site.