International Students learn about Thanksgiving (Photo by Christina Parrish, The Daily Campus)

Victory Campus Ministries hosted its third annual International Thanksgiving Celebration Monday, providing a free Thanksgiving dinner for SMU students.

Daniel Bunker, Campus Minister with VCM and the event coordinator, began this event at SMU. Before coming to Dallas, Bunker interned at the University of Southern California, which offered a similar campus event.

“I wanted to be able to bless international students at SMU and give them a little taste of American tradition and culture,” he said.

VCM, Global Connections, SMU Student Senate and Nation 2 Nation sponsored the event, which served 160 SMU students.

The evening started out with greetings and conversations led by the table hosts, comprised of 20 volunteers. Sarah Bales, a table host, offered her time for this celebration. “I have an interest and a heart for these types of events,” she said.

Before dinner, blessings were given in five different languages, including Macedonian, Chinese, Hungarian, Spanish and English. For dinner, the traditional Thanksgiving fare of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie was served.

After dinner, SMU gospel choir Voices of Inspiration performed songs of praise followed by a short skit acted by VCM volunteers on the history of Thanksgiving.

Sami Azzam, a graduate student in computer engineering, attended the event for the first time. “It was cool because a group of people gathered together to learn about the history of Thanksgiving and to give thanks,” he said.

Bunker summed up his expectation of the event’s impact: “My hope is that the international students who cannot be with their families during this time will have a sense of community and feel included in this wonderful time of giving thanks.”