Christopher Newport University’s Student Diversity and Equality Council (SDEC) and the Campus Activities Board (CAB) hosted their annual intercultural festival on The Great Lawn last Friday. The weather could not have been better for this wonderful event, who’s main focus is to bring attention to cultures that may not get as much attention on campus.
President of CAB, Erin Sample, shared with The Captain’s Log that she loves event planning and the intercultural festival was very important to her, because it was the last event she gets to plan on campus before she graduates.
“It’s really important that we have diversity and inclusion measures included within our events, and I think it’s really cool to collaborate with SDEC so that we can have a joint effort to make the event a lot bigger,” she said.
This event had activities and crafts from three cultures, Irish, West African and Colombian. People could make necklaces out of Celtic knots, spin bracelets, hand-fold tissue paper flowers and design coloring pages. Students who participated in at least two of the three stations were given a free blue t-shirt with the intercultural festival logo on it. Also at the event were fun foods from different cultures around the world, such as egg fried rice and colcannon (cabbage in mashed potatoes).
Rachel Thornton, CAB’s Vice President of Operations, spoke a little bit about the event planning process behind the intercultural festival. “Our committees as a whole came up with a bunch of different ideas for tables and we narrowed it down to these three,” she said.
Student Caleb Funnel shared why intercultural fest was important to him. “It brings everyone together and we celebrate different cultural identities,” he said.
Overall, the intercultural fest on campus was a great way to get involved and learn about different cultures around the world.
