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<p>KINGSTON &#8212; International Club of the Wyoming Seminary Upper School hosted its 24th annual International Dinner in the student center on Saturday.</p><p>The dinner featured a buffet of student-made food and drinks from 14 different countries and gave students a chance to share their traditional meals with faculty and family.</p><p>Jessica Gensel, Mandarin teacher and International Club adviser, helped to run the event.</p><p>&#8220;International Club is basically a club where people form different countries join to learn about each other&#8217;s culture and languages,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They come here and bring this diversity to the community.</p><p>&#8220;This is the International Dinner, which we have in the winter time. Students &#8230; cook food from their home (country). They bring it here, write up the recipe. They prepare it over winter break.&#8221;</p><p>The school also has an International Carnival in the fall and an International Assembly in the spring.</p><p>&#8220;I think Sem has a really unique atmosphere for diversity since we have so many students from different countries, and you can hardly find such diversity in this area,&#8221; Gensel said. &#8220;We want to be able to spread this kind of diversity to our community members and let them appreciate a different culture and be more open-minded.</p><p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s an important skill for 21st century students.&#8221;</p><p>Jim Doherty, a mathematics teacher at Wyoming Seminary, also believes diversity is helpful to students.</p><p>&#8220;I really notice it helping students once they graduate,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They come back a few years later and say that they adjusted much better to life on a university campus than some of their peers because they&#8217;re used to seeing people of all backgrounds and hearing foreign languages that they might not know.&#8221;</p><p>Doherty added that the events also help the faculty.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s really great for faculty to have these events because it helps us get to know the students outside of the classroom. I have students waving me over to come try the food they made. It&#8217;s a great way to interact,&#8221; Doherty noted.</p><p>Maria Jonsson, a junior exchange student from Sweden, shared a Swedish dessert, which translates to &#8220;chocolate balls.&#8221; The balls, typically had with coffee, are covered in coconut and contain cocoa, oats and coffee.</p><p>&#8220;This is a typical pastry that we eat when we take a coffee break, so we usually drink coffee and eat the pastry, and this is a very typical pastry,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s really cool that Sem can come together as a community and share different cultures since we are a very diverse community here.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Sabin Warkentin, 5, who&#8217;s father is a professor at Wyoming Seminary, enjoys some foods Saturday night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418dinner-6.jpg</photo0><caption0>Sabin Warkentin, 5, who&#8217;s father is a professor at Wyoming Seminary, enjoys some foods Saturday night. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418dinner-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nancy Chen, a Wyoming Seminary student from China, pours some Thailand iced tea. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418dinner-3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Nancy Chen, a Wyoming Seminary student from China, pours some Thailand iced tea. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418dinner-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Seminary senior Jennifer Kang, a student from South Korea, serves Korean pancakes. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418dinner-4.jpg</photo2><caption2>Wyoming Seminary senior Jennifer Kang, a student from South Korea, serves Korean pancakes. </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418dinner-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Seminary Junior Rebecca James serves parroz con gandules, a rice dish from Puerto Rico. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418dinner-2.jpg</photo3><caption3>Wyoming Seminary Junior Rebecca James serves parroz con gandules, a rice dish from Puerto Rico. </caption3><photoCredit3></photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418dinner-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Allison Lyavdansky serves up Russian blini with jam during the 24th annual Wyoming Seminary International Dinner on Saturday at the school in Kingston. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418dinner-1.jpg</photo4><caption4>Allison Lyavdansky serves up Russian blini with jam during the 24th annual Wyoming Seminary International Dinner on Saturday at the school in Kingston. </caption4><photoCredit4></photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Katie Pugh</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach the Times Leader newsroom at 570-829-7242 or on Twitter @TLnews.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Seminary’s International Dinner highlights school’s diversity