International students came together to celebrate and show pride in their cultures during Global Culture Night at the EIU Martin Luther King Jr. University Union on Saturday evening.
Hosted by the Association of International Students, the event was held to demonstrate to international students that there is a safe space for them at Eastern and to showcase their cultures to the EIU and Charleston communities.
The event started with a Kahoot about the various cultures and countries around the world that Eastern’s international students come from.
Throughout the night, there were speeches from international students about the United States and the culture shock they experienced when moving here.
Performances by a dance team of international students also took place, and they sometimes encouraged audience participation.
Anthony Amotoe Bondzie, a graduate assistant specializing in energy management, performed a traditional drum dance called “Jema,” which is about bringing the community together and remembering home.
Amotoe Bondzie said that there is no discrimination when performing the dance.
“It’s all about seeing each other, having a feeling of being in a group,” Amotoe Bondzie said.
One of the event organizers was AIS President Krishna Daravath, a grad student in technology, who said he loves doing these events for the international community to show different stories and cultures to people from the surrounding area.
“These are the kind of events that will encourage internationals to look up to EIU,” Daravath said.
One of the other organizers was International Student Coordinator Benjamen Rienbolt.
“Currently, we have 56 countries represented at EIU this semester alone,” said Rienbolt.
One of the people invited that night was Kenton Macy, a volunteer at Embarras Volunteer Stewards, which is an organization focused on restoring natural public areas.
Macy was invited to the event by other volunteers and wanted to experience something new.
“I like it really well,” said Macy. “I’m meeting a few new people here and everything. Anytime I can learn new things, I’m really interested in it.”
Macy also said he would like to see more people from the Charleston community come to events like this.
“It would be even greater if more community people came,” he said. “We’ve got a decent number of people from different countries that come here to EIU, and we can learn a lot from them.”
Rob Crownson can be reached at 581-2812 or at rjcrownson@eiu.edu.