On Nov. 14, in the Student Union Atrium, students gathered to celebrate the diverse cultures at Wright State University by attending the first Cultural Carnival, hosted in a large collaboration of many student organizations.
Event overview
To kick off the event, the Lion Dance Association, or LDA, performed a lion dance for the crowd. The LDA was one of the student organizations representing their culture, with some others including the Black Student Union, Asian Student Association and Indian Student Association.
Attendees were each given a small card. Listed on it were the abbreviations of each organization that had a booth. The students were instructed to go around to each booth and collect a sticker marking it off. This also allowed attendees to be entered into a raffle. At each station, students could try a different food offered to demonstrate each culture.
Some booths were accompanied by posters, and students could ask questions about the culture that was being represented.
In addition to the student organization members, staff and faculty also attended.
Divya Blakemore is an Assistant Director of International Education and Programming at the University Center for International Education, also known as UCIE.
"The idea of the Cultural Carnival came from the President of the Nepalese Student Association at the International Student Retreat, where student leaders came together to put on this event," Blakemore said. "The whole idea is to show unity in diversity; we really want students to feel like they belong.”
Ali Burton, an attendee of the Cultural Carnival, noted that the performance of the LDA at the start of the event was the most interesting thing to her. In fact, she shared that this was what brought her and her friend, Haley Mansell, to the diverse cultural celebration.
"Each booth gave you a literal taste of what their culture is like; having said that, this approach helps create a deep sense of what is being discussed," Burton said.
Mansell enjoyed the LDA display, alongside Burton. Mansell discussed learning about these performances in school, sharing how different of an experience it was to see them performed in real life, versus just learning about them in the classroom.
“Learning about the significance of what turbans [are and] being able to learn that they signify more than just one thing," Mansell said. "I would like to see more of the cultures of the big population at [WSU]."
Bruce Tenezaca, a graduate student in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, attended the event, sharing that what surprised him the most was seeing how many people were interacting with people they did not know, and how comfortable everyone seemed to be.
"It was interesting being able to see the diversity of all the organizations and getting to be part of it," Tenezaca said. "The food drew me to the event. Different food from different cultures would be pretty eye-opening because I’m used to eating the same thing every day, and eating something different will definitely open my mind."
With each individual experience, a newfound appreciation was born for the many diverse cultures of WSU.
