Provo company's event has a world flair
The fair, which organizers hope will become an annual event, celebrated the 20th anniversary of MultiLing Corp., a Provo-based international company that aims to enable corporations to communicate their messages to the world. The goal of the World's Fair was to invite the community to be involved and embrace some of the cultures that residents deal with on a daily basis.
"There are a lot of people in this state that have interaction with other cultures, more so than lots of other states," MultiLing president and CEO Michael Sneddon said. "That interest in cultures often comes when people serve missions for the LDS Church, but I think it should be done earlier in life."
The World's Fair is set up as a contest for high school students throughout the state. The students were invited to prepare creative presentations on a country, and the best team and its sponsoring teacher would win $1,000 reward.
Presentations were given on the United Kingdom, China, Mexico, Iran and Russia. Each group came up with a situation to act out that would teach community members, MultiLing employees and a representative from the governor's office about the culture of that country.
"For this it was fun and it was a new twist because we were incorporating the knowledge we have gained throughout the year," said 18-year-old Carly Rawlinson, whose group won the competition based on its depiction of an Iranian family.
The class, which was busy preparing for its upcoming AP test, voted to participate in the event, considering it a different means of test preparation.
"I have never really had my eyes open to another country until I started studying government and getting ready for the AP test," said Kory Brown, 18, a senior at Mountain Crest. "(Today) was a good way to see how much we all know about what we are going to be tested on."
The event also featured a dance group that performed a native Bolivian dance, and those in attendance sampled foods from different areas of the world.
MultiLing was happy with how things turned out, and the company looks forward to continuing the tradition. Margaret Obray, the Mountain Crest teacher who brought her class down from Hyrum, was especially proud of what her students came up with.
"I thought they did great," she said. "I was really impressed with them and with the way they worked it in with everything else that they are doing."
E-mail: ethomas@desnews.com
