Hear ye, hear ye: That Ivory Tower on the hill known as Cornell is ready and able to send some of its most precious resources -- students with international interests -- to area classrooms to talk about cultures or issues in other countries or to give demonstrations or performances pertaining to those cultures.

With more than 3,000 international students representing some 115 countries and about 100 internationally focused student organizations, Cornell is helping area schools tap into their expertise by launching the new Performance and Speakers Bureau. The bureau coordinates international organizations across campus to find and train student presenters. The bureau is sponsored by the Cornell Educational Resources for International Studies (CERIS), a unit of Cornell's Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.

Topics offered are expanding weekly; most focus on culture, history, current events and hands-on activities. Groups who specialize in performance will demonstrate their skills or introduce young people to dance, music or theater. Examples of current offerings include:

The bureau not only will provide a speaker or performer tailored to the needs of a particular classroom, but it also will handle all the scheduling, costs, training and other logistics, says Sophie Huntington, educational outreach coordinator for the Einaudi Center.

"In the past, individual area studies programs have established informal relationships with some student organizations," said Huntington. "This is the first time we've worked together to engage student organizations and to offer them a system through which they can engage in outreach to local K-12 students."

The CERIS team is actively cultivating relationships with K-12 teachers, administrators and school organizations in Tompkins County, said Huntington, "to make it very easy for student organizations to share their expertise with local young people. ...

"Our students can often inspire K-12 students as peers in a way that faculty and staff can't.," she added. Students interested in participating or teachers seeking student presenters can contact Huntington at srh43@cornell.edu.

Heike Michelsen, research associate for Cornell's Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, contributed to this article.