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Thanksgiving dinner with U.S. students.

A special American Thanksgiving dinner for U.S. students in Canada

December 3, 2013 — 

Three U of M students from the U.S. were treated to a special American Thanksgiving dinner last week.

Emanuella Othello, from Florida, Sarah Jorgenson, from California, and Neil Gablenz, from Minnesota, were invited to the home of Consul Timothy L. Cipullo of the Consulate of the United States in Winnipeg for turkey and all the trimmings. The dinner for U.S. students studying in Canada has become an annual tradition for Cipullo and his family.

It’s a tradition he started after having a similar experience many years ago when he was a college student in Tokyo studying at International Christian University (ICU).

“I received an invitation out of the blue to Thanksgiving dinner at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence. It turned out that Ambassador Michael Armacost had taught at ICU and thought it would be a nice gesture to offer a traditional Thanksgiving dinner to students far from home. The intimate gathering — just a half dozen U.S. college students, the Ambassador and his wife — left a powerful impression on me.

“It planted the seed to try to enter the Foreign Service, which I did a decade later. Since then, I have tried to do the same for U.S. students where I am posted. It has become a great Thanksgiving tradition for my family.”

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