Cross-Cultural Outreach Program Projects
To meet CCS requirements, each student must complete Cross-Cultural Outreach Program (CCOP) projects. These projects are ways to both share their culture and to learn about other cultures.What is a Major Project?
A Major Project is an event that involves a greater time commitment, preparation and responsibility. It often involves spending the entire day at an elementary school, secondary school or university.
Examples of Major Projects
- International Learning Day –Fall
- International Night –Spring Community Schools
- Global Diversity Days –Fall or Spring, as requested
What is a Minor Project?
Minor Projects are events that require the same dedication, preparation, and responsibility as the Major Project-- just less time commitment.
There are many Minor Projects during the academic year, and they become available at any time as requested by the larger community. Winona State, City of Winona, Clubs & Organizations often hold these types of projects.
Examples of Minor Projects
| Japanese Tea Ceremony 1 hour duration |
Students from Japan and South Korea prepared and served Japanese and Korean Tea. |
| Honduras and Bangladesh 1 hour duration |
Musical representation by a guitar band. |
| Salsa Night 1.5 hour duration |
A mixture of Latin American dance, music and music lessons organized by the Spanish Club. |
| Argentina and Sri Lanka 1.5 hour duration |
Musical representation by a singer from Argentina and dancer from Sri Lanka. |
| Travel Abroad Fair 3 hour duration |
International students participate in the Travel Abroad Fair to share their study abroad experience with interested students. |
| Heritage Food Festival 2 hour duration |
Culinary culture sharing with the community. Students had to prepare a representative food dish from their country. The Winona Friendship Center provided the ingredients and cooking place. |
| Pakistan Presentation for Project Fine 1 hour duration County Office Building, 202 West 3rd Street |
Twenty minutes country PowerPoint presentation including information about the country culture in general – traditions, food, holidays, religion, etc. |
| Informal Chinese/English Interpretation 3 hours duration Grace Place, 66 E 2nd Street |
Opportunity for students to add to their resume translator work experience. Passage tours needed 2 to 3 students from China to do informal interpretation (translation) for a group of Chinese tourists who are traveling through the Midwest. |
| WSHS: One-on-one interview 1 hour duration Winona Senior High School |
Participation in Dwayne Voegeli's Global Studies classes. One international student matches up with one American student while the high school students used this opportunity to practice their interviewing skills. |
| Korean Night - International Education Week 2 hours duration Science Lab Center |
Minor and Major Projects--The students from the Korean club organized a Korean Night featuring Korean food, dances, games, clothing, language sharing, taekwondo demonstration and music. |
| Chinese New Year Celebration 3 hours in duration SLC 120 |
The Chinese Club organized a celebration for the Chinese New Year. Attendees could eat dumplings, Grilled chicken, Chinese pancakes, play traditional Chinese games, view traditional Chinese artifacts, have names written in Chinese, and enjoy watching Chinese Spring Festival Gala Evening together. |
| Spring Festival Dinner 4 hours in duration East Hall |
Minor and Major Project - The Taiwanese and Malaysian clubs collaborate to celebrate Malaysian New Moon through a Spring Festival dinner at WSU. Taiwanese and Malaysian students cooked traditional food with other students from different nations in order to enhance their countries' cultures. |
Where can I find available Major and Minor Projects?
You will find all available Minor and Major projects on Microsoft Teams. Teams is an integrated online platform where instructors and students can interact through different teams, channels, chat and video calls. You will need to use your WSU account to access Teams.
The Cross-Cultural Outreach Program can be found under the WSU-Cross Cultural Outreach Program Team.
It is important to know that new channels with different CCOP projects will be posted each Fall and Spring semester.
1. Events Organized and Coordinated by International Services
The International Services office organizes and coordinates several cultural sharing experiences throughout the year with members of the WSU or Winona community.
Depending of the type of event, these projects may be classified as Minors or Majors.
2. Cultural & Diversity Clubs Events
WSU Cultural and Diversity clubs and organizations put together many celebrations of their country’s holidays and festivals. Traditional activities and food are usually part of the celebration.
The event must be approved by the Cross-Cultural Scholarship Student Coordinator or Program Coordinator in advance.
Use the Cross Cultural Outreach Program Proposal Form to submit a project proposal.
3. Events organized by the individual International students
Some International students such as WSU-Rochester, international students completing CPT, away from campus, and/or Graduate international students have the option to reach out themselves for cultural events.
The student must get approval from the CCS coordinator prior to the event to get credit for completing a major or minor project. You must provide the name of the event, organizer (person who recruited you) and description of the activity.
The activity can be within the following categories:
- Campus involvement activities
- Cultural sharing in the community
- Community service
How do I sign up for a project?
Each project is listed as a channel in the WSU-Cross Cultural Outreach Program Team. On the top of each channel is a tab that says Sign Up. Clicking on the Sign Up tab will take you directly to the Sign Up form for that project. By signing up for a project, you are agreeing to fulfill the requirements of the project.
What do I do once I have signed-up for a project?
Each Major and Minor Project listed on Teams will have specific details and guidelines on what you need to do including time, location and event details. Some virtual projects will require you to sign up on an external link as well.
In general, you should follow these steps:
- Mark everything down in your calendar and be ready to participate in the project.
- Organize your schedule to allow for travel time to an on- or off- campus location. (Location details will be listed in the project summary.)
- If you are sick or otherwise need to cancel your participation in a project, email CCOP@winona.edu as soon as possible. We need to let the partner know that you are not able to attend and possibly find a replacement presenter.
- If you miss two events without notification to CCOP@winona.edu, you will either have to complete an additional project or risk losing your CCS scholarship.
- Do not sign up for a project if it will interfere with class time. If that is unavoidable, make sure to work with your professor ahead of time so that you do not miss anything in class.
