The Intercultural Center (ICC) hosted its first ever “All Around The World” event that celebrated the various cultural clubs on campus on Saturday. The event was co-hosted by all of the ICC umbrella clubs: WOCA, JSA, BASO, SEAC, ¡AHORA!, TSA, BBSO, KSA, BAASA, SASA, I-CLUB, German Club, Project Nur and TRISK. Tracing back to the 1960s, the ICC has always been a means of highlighting the rich cultural diversity present within the Brandeis community, and “All Around The World” truly affirms the center’s continuing commitment to this cause.
As the brainchild of all the ICC representatives from each ICC club, “All Around The World” sought to create more awareness of the existence and goals of each club. For Vicky Lee ’13 and Jung Park ’14, two members of the ICC Programming Board that trains all ICC representatives to be future club leaders, the event was important because it “educates not only students unfamiliar with the ICC about these clubs, but also between each club as well,” Lee said.
As such, education was an emerging theme at the event through the various clubs’ games and activities on the Great Lawn. ¡AHORA! allowed students to play a picture game that sought to break cultural preconceived notions of what a typical Hispanic/Latino looks like. BBSO played Black History Trivia, while some members of KSA dressed up in traditional “hanbok” (Korean dresses) to offer further cultural perspective at the event. All the clubs provided delicious food and kept each table visitor excited with their individual activities.
For background music, each club submitted a playlist of songs that were all combined into a master playlist at the event. Students walked from table to table to the sound of KPOP, Reggae, Latin Dance and hip hop, just to name a few. The various soundtracks made the event all the more upbeat and fun.
For spectator Carolyn Williams ’15, it was great to “see all these clubs in one place.”
Jessica Hood ’15, a publicity coordinator on the Brandeis Black Student Organization (BBSO) board and ICC representative for the Women of Color Alliance (WOCA) expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “I think it was a great event for the campus because we never see different cultures and clubs in one space trading our favorite aspects of our culture.”
It was undeniable that seeing all of the ICC clubs coming together reminded many spectators of the many different groups on this campus. It would have been great to see more collaboration between the groups at the event to truly show how cultures can come together. Nonetheless, the ICC’s “All Around the World” event successfully showcased the many cultural clubs on campus and, in more ways than one, provided much food for thought about multiculturalism at Brandeis.
