Celebrating Cultural Diversity

One goal of the Student Life Department is to foster a welcoming and inclusive community at Conestoga College; an environment where students feel like they belong. With this in mind, it is important for our campus community to celebrate and embrace the vast amount of cultural diversity on campus!

In partnership with academic programs and other service departments, the Student Life Department helps to lead Celebrating Cultural Diversity Week in November and February each semester.

The Student Life Department engages a number of classes through CSL for Celebrating Cultural Diversity Week, including the English Language Studies program as part of their “Student Success for Higher Learning” Liberal Studies course, and the International Business Management program, as part of their “World Cultures” Liberal Studies course. In the second semester, degree students can also choose “World Cultures” as an elective and thereby participate in CSL.

As an interdisciplinary CSL at the Doon Campus, International Business Management students have also been partnered with students from the English Language Studies (ELS) program to provide them with a hands-on opportunity to learn about world cultures directly from international and New Canadian students. For ELS students, it is an opportunity to meet other Canadian students while practicing their oral and written skills.

At the Waterloo Campus, ELS students are given the chance to practice these same skills while also learning how to plan, organize and promote the CSL in the process.

By applying the students' course learning objectives to a practical, experiential exercise, Conestoga College is able to celebrate the vast student diversity on our campuses and reinforce a respectful, welcoming and inclusive campus community in the process.

English Language Studies students and International Business Management students
November 2009 – Doon Campus

English Language Studies students
February 2010 – Waterloo Campus