Forty ISU students will have a chance to increase their communication across cultures this weekend.

The Intercultural Communication, Diversity and Leadership Retreat is part of the Building Intercultural Competence: Improving the Life Skills of ISU Students in Learning Communities program.

The retreat, which is being held in Madrid, is also open to ISU students who do not live in learning communities.

It is being sponsored by the International Education Services, Minority Student Affairs, the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication and the Student Activities Center.

“The retreat will be a unique opportunity for students,” said Retreat 2000 Coordinator Luiza Dreasher. “For two days, students will be involved in highly energetic and experiential activities such as simulation games, group discussions and other team-building activities.”

Veronica Villagomez, program assistant for Minority Student Affairs, will present an activity that focuses on how the media are not always a good representative of diversity.

She said understanding is the purpose of the event.

“The focus of the retreat is to come away having learned something about a group of people of which you have more commonalties than differences,” Villagomez said.

Dreasher said she thinks this is a chance to prepare students for the future.

“This is an opportunity for the divisions of Student and Academic Affairs to work together towards one common goal — the one of preparing our students for our increasingly global society,” she said.

Dina Bertolini, senior in civil engineering, is attending the retreat for a second time. It was also held in the fall.

“I’ve always been active in learning about other cultures. My parents are both from Italy, so I know how hard it is to keep your culture when in the American culture,” she said.

Bertolini said even though she’s surrounded herself with opportunities to learn about other cultures, she doesn’t like to pass up these kinds of chances.

“You can always learn more about anything that deals with people relations. It’s like seeing a different color in the spectrum,” she said.

Villagomez said she hopes the participants leave the retreat with a sense of openness.

“I hope a lot of these activities will foster a certain level of comfort among the people [in order to] heighten awareness and create a dialogue. Stereotypes are broken down through interaction, dialogue and sharing personal experiences,” she said. “This isn’t just a 50-minute class. You have a lot more time to get to know someone.”

The program is also sponsored by a grant from the Provost’s Office and the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.