MARSHALL — Eighth-graders at Marshall Middle School had an opportunity Friday morning to learn about how the world’s continents encompass hundreds of different cultures.

At an all-grade assembly in the Middle School theater, students listened to the stories of a four-member panel. Added together, panelists shared perspectives that began to take shape in Somalia, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic and 1960s South Carolina.

“We wanted to offer our students a culture day that included as many parts of the world as possible,” said MMS 8th grade social studies teacher Taylor Johnson. “We live in a big world. They have plenty of firsthand knowledge about their school and community. This is a chance to hear about what others have experienced.”

Friday’s event took shape through a collaboration between Johnson, Karen Organization of Minnesota’s Marshall-based program manager Ron Skjong, Lyon County Museum Director Jennifer Andries and Marshall-based Adult Community Center Assistant Director Heather Radke. It was the culmination of a year-long planning process.

The panel featured nursing assistant and Somalia refugee Farhia Noor of Marshall and three Southwest Minnesota State University officials. Those from SMSU included Dean of Business, Education and Professional Studies Raphael Onyeaghala, Director of International Student Services Juan Tavares, and Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs Dwight Watson.

As the opening speaker, Noor described her flight from Somalia after almost 20 years of civil war. While still living in her homeland, she became a nurse trainee with the understanding that after three to five years of work experience she would become a nurse with full credentials. Instead she became the supervisor of the health care center’s malnutrition unit after only one month of employment.

Her decision to leave Somalia was made after gunmen attacked her workplace while she was taking maternity leave. It was influenced by how she previously lost a brother who was killed by gunfire

“I was the only one,” Noor said. “I had no family to protect me or my children, so I had to find a safer place.”

With help from a neighbor, she managed to relocate to nearby Kenya, where she lived for six years until getting authorization to immigrate to the United States.

She was first sent to St. Louis, Mo., and needed to be moved to a more secure area within the city after again facing nearby gunfire. Eventually she was able to relocate to Marshall.

“I like Marshall,” she said. “It’s meant peace and freedom. Here I can do my best to reach my dream.”

As the last speaker on the panel, Watson offered memories of growing up in segregated South Carolina. Born in 1961, he was named after President Dwight Eisenhower, who was his father’s highest commanding officer in World War II. Eisenhower’s presidency later included the historic 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka ruling that paved the way for nationwide public school integration.

Watson told the audience that South Carolina was still in many ways a segregated place when he was a young child. His mother considered herself a “spy in the house of racism” by virtue of being allowed to work in the white ward of a hospital since she was light-skinned enough to pass for being white rather than black.

Watson’s early education was also influenced by segregation. In spite of his interest in reading and learning, he was not allowed to venture into the Sumter, S.C., library.

He was given a strong educational foundation nonetheless since the town’s librarian, who noticed his potential, illegally allowed him to study in the library basement and brought him plenty of library materials.

Since his ancestors were brought to America as slaves, he doesn’t know any of the specifics about his homeland heritage.

“They were forced to go to the United States as part of the slave trade,” Watson said. “My past got erased. They wanted slaves to forget about it so they could be acculturated.”

Like Watson, Onyeaghala also had a strong interest in learning as he grew up in Nigeria. When his father died, he was certain it would mean the end of his education so that he could provide for his mother and his six younger siblings.

Instead, by taking advantage of every educational opportunity he could attain, he eventually earned acceptance to a master’s degree program at the University of London. From there, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in the United States.

After agreeing to interview for a business department faculty position at SMSU, he was offered the job before he even returned home from Marshall. Fifteen years after accepting the position, he considers it the best decision he’s made in his life.

Tavares attended college in the United States partly as a result of his athletic background. He described how the Dominican Republic, a Spanish American country located in the Caribbean next to the former French colony of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, has more minor league professional baseball players than any nation except the United States.

Instead his sport was swimming. He earned a degree at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., and was part of an MSU Spartans athletic team. He now mentors SMSU students from many different countries.

Through online ancestry research, he’s found that he has 17 percent African heritage. Skjong also found surprising research results that showed his largest portion of ancestry is Irish rather than Norwegian.

“I’d always considered myself Norwegian because of my last name,” Skjong said. “Serving in the Navy made me much more aware of the world outside the Midwest. My job with the Karen Organization (which involves assisting refugees) has given me the same kind of rewards.”

MMS eighth grader Leng Vue said he’ll remember many details from Friday’s session, especially Noor’s description of surviving a civil war. Classmate Grace Ehlers said she enjoyed hearing how life experiences from around the world have come together in Marshall, while classmate Zubier Ali said he enjoyed descriptions of different decisions made as part of reaching individual goals.

“It showed how everyone has a story,” said MMS eighth-grader Marissa Talamantes. “That includes people like me who’ve always lived in Marshall.”

Andries concluded the program by noting that two more sessions are planned for March and then May. They’ll include emphasis on ways people preserve their family heritage.