“Spilling the Tea” about Diverse Cultures

The Kentucky Extension Homemakers Association prides itself on supporting the exploration and understanding of diverse cultures. Scott County has one of the largest membership of the KEHA organization and strives to support the organization's missions. With this in mind, the Scott County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) prioritized international education and organized an event for not only Scott County homemakers, but all community members. 

The event was styled a Tea, where cultural traditions and samples of a variety of international teas were sampled. Featured counties included: the Philippines, Spain, Morocco, Japan, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Sri Lanka. Each county's flag and language were incorporated into the design of the program furthermore, some traditions from these countries were discussed. 

Tea from each featured country was sampled by those who attended and a keynote speaker presented the educational program in collaboration with the FCS Agent. The featured speaker has a background in global education, as the Global Learning Recruitment Specialist Co-Advisor and Global Learning Ambassador for Western Kentucky University. Those who attended and participated were able to learn about global traditions beyond tea. This included food traditions, lifestyles, education, and more. 

The program was successful in allowing participants to go outside their comfort zone to try new things from a culture different than their own. Additionally, all participants (in a formative verbal survey) agreed that they learned something new and were enthusiastic about attending a similar event in the future. The Scott County Extension Agent for FCS will continue to provide opportunities to embrace diversity and explore cultures in the months and years to come.