A group of Marshall's multicultural students traveled to Snowshoe Mountain Resort for a two-day conference concerning community involvement and leadership.
The 2nd annual Create West Virginia Conference offered 12 Marshall students an opportunity to network and expand innovative ideas. From October 20-22, attendees learned how to benefit their communities by celebrating tolerance, diversity and creative education.
"I think there is a dual mission here," said Maurice Cooley, director of the Center for African American Students' Programs. "One is so the students from multicultural backgrounds can attend the conference and share ideas and perspectives that otherwise they may not have. Also, those students come back to the university to represent those multicultural backgrounds for the development of Huntington."
The 12 students that attended were international and multicultural students. Clark Egnor, executive director of international programs, said the trip would give many international students the chance to participate in West Virginia's culture outside of Huntington.
"I thought this would be a really interesting conference for our international students because they're so intellectually curious," Egnor said. "This is not an obvious cultural experience, but I think it will have a lot of impact on them."
Egnor said the conference revolves around how to stimulate and maintain West Virginia's economy through creative measures and resourceful people. He said the people who work in the creative fields with information and knowledge stimulate the economy.
"The focus of the conference is very cutting edge for West Virginia," Egnor said. "It's all about how to grow the economy and the culture of West Virginia by attracting, nurturing and cultivating this group of people called the creative class."
According to the conference's Web site, the "new economy" includes industries like software development, arts, culture and academic research.
"People talk about developing Huntington, so it's attractive to these kinds of people and companies," Egnor said. "If we wanted to make a creative West Virginia, we would want to create an area that's open to and values diversity. That diversity is good for the economy. It's good for job creation and for our state."
The conference featured speakers and workshops focusing on community growth and education strategies.
"It's one thing to say 'Get off your butt and help the community,' but unless you have some direction, you're just wasting energy," said Douglas Evans, psychology graduate student. "So many people get discouraged just by that. This conference gave people a direction to go or a base to start."
Evans said the Create West Virginia Conference has influenced him to join Create Huntington. This group's mission is to apply the themes displayed at the conference to improve the city's economy and culture.
"It all comes down to desperate times," said sophomore biochemistry major Shina Ngenge. "That always yields good results because then you have no choice but to change."
Colin Thorn can be contacted at thorn12@marshall.edu.
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