Drake students in the First Year Seminar, Diversity in the U.S., will host “Roots and Routes” on Dec. 5 to present their semester-long exploration of diversity. The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Olin Hall, Room 206, with a reception to follow.

The class took part in a service-learning project focused on global diversity with fourth grade students from Walnut Street International Baccalaureate Elementary School this semester. They will showcase their work at the event through a collaborative video project featuring different culture’s journeys to become a part of the United States. Viewers will hear Native American poetry, European fairy tales, African American history and music, and Chinese music and language.

“The 4th graders we worked with not only come from a broad range of racial and ethnic communities, but as students of Mandarin at their IB school, they represent a future bridge between our local and global communities,” says Sandra Patton-Imani, associate professor of American studies. “The stories explored in this video demonstrate not only that we are a multicultural nation, but that we are also multicultural individuals, in the sense that we are all shaped and influenced by a range of cultural traditions.”

The event is co-sponsored by the Department for the Study of Culture and Society, the First Year Seminar program, the Office of Service-Learning and the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship. Students in Sociology 21: Introduction to Race and Ethnic Relations will sponsor the reception following the presentation.