KNOXVILLE –- Take him on your study-abroad adventure. Take him to your hometown. Take him along on your next cultural adventure.

If you are going somewhere interesting, Smokey wants to go too
!
That’s the idea behind “Where in the World is Smokey?”, a challenge designed to allow students, faculty and staff to share their experiences with the campus community while drawing attention to the Ready for the World initiative.

The goal of “Ready for the World: The International and Intercultural Awareness Initiative” is to transform the campus into a culture of diversity that best prepares students for working and competing in the 21st century. The initiative involves increasing the diversity among our students, faculty and staff; altering the curriculum; encouraging faculty to incorporate international and intercultural aspects in all of their courses; expanding study-abroad and work-study opportunities; and encouraging students to take advantage of all of these opportunities.

“Where in the World is Smokey” is debuting during the next few weeks on campus bulletin boards. A booth promoting the program also will be at the Study Abroad Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today in the University Center ballroom.

In short, here’s how “Where in the World is Smokey?” works:

• Request a “Where in the World is Smokey?” T-shirt.
• Wear the T-shirt and have someone take your photo or make a video of you while you’re on your international or intercultural adventure. (Cell phone or digital camera videos are fine.)
• Upload the video to YouTube and then e-mail the video or the photo of yourself to media relations along with your name, a description of where you are and what you’re doing.

Your photo or video might then appear on the Ready for the World Web site and other campus publications.

“This is a challenge to see how many interesting places Smokey can visit this semester,” said Amy Blakely, a media relations coordinator who is helping with the program.
“We want to see Smokey across Tennessee, the U.S. and the world. We’d love to see Smokey visiting museums, festivals and all sorts of cultural events. The photos, videos and stories we receive will be featured on the ‘Ready for the World’ Web site.”

At the end of the semester, everyone who submitted a photo or video for use on the Web site will be entered into a drawing for a video camera.

For more information about “Where in the World is Smokey?” and how you can participate, see: http://www.utk.edu/readyfortheworld/smokey/index.php.

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Contacts:

Amy Blakely, (865) 974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu

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