Community leaders, Utah State University officials and donors broke ground on the Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center last Wednesday.
The building itself is nothing new. It’s what’s inside that building that will make the difference in students’ lives said Rebecca Walton, Associate Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
“These are going to be places where students are going to study and practice their specific languages,” Walton said.
The center will house all eight language programs at USU. Emma Newby, who’s learning German at USU, said the center will help her studies and create a more inclusive environment.
“It's gonna be a really good thing for promoting more intercultural space here on campus. I think the representation of languages, of diversity, of cultural interaction and humility, that’s what the building will do,” Newby said.
On top of providing instruction, Walton said the center’s resources go beyond the classroom.
“We know how hard it is for people to focus on learning when their basic needs aren’t being met,” she noted.
Walton said the center will have lactation rooms, meditation spaces, indoor bike storage and break rooms with fridges, microwaves and reflection spaces for students to use while they’re on campus.
“Those spaces can help make the building a real hub for connection among students on campus,” she said.
The building is named after donor and USU grad Mehdi Heravi. He said he felt a responsibility to give back to USU.
“A very beautiful obligation of love. It's about time that we teach the values of peace versus the destruction, the misery, the death, the disability,” he said.
