To celebrate cultural diversity and display the importance of international perspectives in education, Fellows at George Washington University helped to organize the annual ‘Taste of the East’ event held at the Duquesne Business School on May 21, 2010. The event was attended by students, faculty, sponsoring agencies, and embassy officials.

JFDP Fellows from across Southeast Europe and Eurasia collaborated with other international students and faculty to cook dishes representing their home countries. Marsel Kalemi, a JFDP Fellow from Albania, called the event “a unique experience, as I’d never cooked before.” Kalemi worked with fellow Albanian scholars, Ruzica Simic and Alkida Hasaj to create an authentic dish for the event. Other Fellows, including Perseta Grabova (Albania), Ana Jurcic (Serbia), Ekaterine Bakaradze (Georgia), and Zlatko Besovski (Macedonia) also participated in the event by creating dishes and putting together videos which presented information on their respective countries.

The event is held annually at George Washington University and organized by Wafa Abou-Zaki, Director of International Visiting and Training Programs, GW School of Business, Department of Management. The aim of the event is to promote cultural understanding and allow visiting scholars the opportunity to better connect with American counterparts. Also in attendance at the event was Zoran Jolevski, Macedonian Ambassador to the United States and officials from the Albanian Embassy.