Group collects change for charity

On Thursday, April 22, students from the NMU Model United Nations club (MUN) will be painting faces to promote the charity Pennies for Peace.

Students from MUN will be in the academic mall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will be encouraging students to donate their loose change to the charity.

Pennies for Peace was started by Greg Mortensen in 1994 to promote and fund community-based schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. One of the goals of the charity is to increase the educational opportunities for women.

Furthering education for women in these countries increases the quality of education for the community, said Nancy Kenok, the president of MUN.  Poor communities in Afghanistan and Pakistan are breeding grounds for terrorist organizations, and if the women in these communities are educated, they are less likely to allow their children join, she said.

MUN has set a goal of 15,000 pennies, or $150. Students who wish to donate may do so in the academic mall during the face painting or at donation jars that can be found around campus.

–– James Dyer

Film series fosters understanding

On Thursday, April 22, the Department of Modern Languages and Literature will be sponsoring an international film night featuring a film from the 2009 Global Lens series.

The film, “What a Wonderful World,” is set in Morocco and will be presented in French and Arabic with English subtitles.

The film is part of the Global Lens Series, a compilation of 10 foreign films put out each year that promote cultural understanding. The films are often shown in different languages with English subtitles.

Anthony Gibbs, a graduate student at NMU, contacted the Global Film Initiative to procure the films for the event.

The purpose of the film night is to educate students about different cultures as well as to entertain, Gibbs said.

“What a Wonderful World” will be shown in the Whitman Commons at 4 p.m. and will be shown free of charge.

— James Dyer

Visiting writer to give reading

Novelist Jeff Vande Zande will give a free reading at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 22, at the Women’s Federated Clubhouse in Marquette.

Vande Zande, an English professor at Delta College in Midland, has had two novels published: “Into the Desperate Country” and “Landscape with Fragmented Figures.” He has also published a collection of stories called “Emergency Stopping and Other Stories” and recently released his novella, “Threatened Species and Other Stories.”

Some of his individual stories have appeared in “Coe Review,” “Existere,” “Passages North,” “Iron Horse Literary Review” and “Smokelong Quarterly.”

This presentation is sponsored by Northern Michigan University’s English department and “Passages North” Literary magazine.

— NMU News Bureau