Image Credit: CFJC Today / Jill Sperling

By Jill Sperling

IDAYS at TRU

TRU celebrating cultural diversity with 30th annual IDays

Mar 11, 2020 | 4:20 PM

KAMLOOPS — Thompson Rivers University is celebrating its 30th IDays, a celebration of the cultures represented on campus.

The university’s international student population has grown over the years and so has IDays.

Currently, TRU has about 3,700 international students from more than 100 countries.

“One of the focuses for our university is to engage everyone, engage and celebrate the people, the thoughts and the cultures on our campus,” said Baihua Chadwick, Associate Vice President International and Chief Executive Officer of TRU World.

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Chadwick helped kick off IDays at the ‘Welcome to IDays’ event held at Student Street in Old Main this morning (Mar. 11). She has attended 24 of 30 IDays.

“It started with just an idea to give the international students at the time, and we only had very few international students on our campus, just to give them the opportunity to share their foods and some of the cultures with our campus,” Chadwick said.

At that time, the event lasted one afternoon. Now, IDays is an event that stretches over multiple days.

“I think we’re always trying to improve everything that we do,” said IDays organizer Carolina Bovi. “One of the considerations was to make sure that we even bring more events that students really want to attend. Anything where students need to pay, we make sure everything’s really affordable.”

A food fair began on campus today, which is just the beginning of a packed schedule of events.

“We still have free tickets for our keynote speakers happening March 11 and March 12,” Bovi said. “Tonight we have Cassie DePecol talking from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. about her experience being the first woman to travel to every country in the world.”

IDays will wrap up Saturday, March 14, with a student organized party at the Old Gym.

“What people can expect is a bunch of music, fun, dancing, a night of fun at TRU,” said Daniel Olawale, a member of the public relations team for the wrap party. “We don’t do a lot of events at TRU, so us students are finally putting on an event for other students. So, we’re hoping that other students will come through and it will be a night of fun, and something different for the students around here.”

TRU is hoping the whole community will join in celebrating IDays and provide feedback for future years.