Graduate students from the Masters with Initial Certification (MIC) program at the UK College of Education and international students from Henry Clay High School co-sponsored an exhibit entitled “The International Flavor of Henry Clay”. It opened Friday, February 7, 2003, at the Kentucky Theater, on Main Street in Lexington.

The exhibition celebrates the wide variety of cultures that make up Henry Clay High School's student body. It features photographs of students in their native countries as well as a PowerPoint presentation of these students working and interacting with their mentors from the UK College of Education.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the presentation, according to Elinor L. Brown, exhibition organizer and professor in the College of Education MIC program, is the depiction of school life in other countries. In one photo, for example, Iranian middle school students are shown dressed in the traditional burkha while tennis shoes show up beneath the hem of their skirts. Parisa Amoozegar, a Henry Clay High School student who has been living in Lexington for the past year, provided the photo. Amanda Hunt, an MIC student and future high school math teacher, was Parisa's mentor last fall.

"Participation in this class was a great learning experience for me," Hunt said. "I realized that, to teach students effectively, I needed to understand that a student body is composed of a wide variety of cultures." Hunt observed Parisa as she attended classes, got to know her family, and gained insights into the structured educational system Amoozegar attended in her home country of Iran.

These two people represent only one aspect of the entire presentation. In addition to photos from Iran, the exhibit also includes depictions of life in Bosnia, the Congo, Ghana, India, Pakistan, Serbia, China, Japan, Germany, Croatia, and Mexico. University students shared photographs from their Kentucky heritage (some dating as far back as the 1920s). On opening night, in addition to the photographic displays, the Henry Clay students prepared samples of their country's traditional desserts.

The MIC program at the University of Kentucky is an intensive one-year graduate program that leads to both a master's degree and initial teacher certification in Kentucky.