A celebration among all cultures

It is widely known that Chaffey has students of many ethnicities, but it is rare to see them all together being elaborately celebrated. The International Education Week did exactly that.
Students from all ethnicities, races, religions and culture gathered in the quad to celebrate not only their own cultures and traditions, but those of their fellow classmates.
As the conclusion of a week full of activities and events, the International Student Center hosted the grand finale on Wednesday November 16.

A long precession of flags, instruments, students and faculty paraded from the SSA Building to the Campus Center east quad. The group was quite the spectacle to students, and seemed to draw a great number of them to join in the celebration.
Festively decorated with flags from all countries, the quad served as the perfect backdrop for the celebration that took place. The program was lively and full of color, as students from several different countries participated in a fashion show, cultural dances and musical performances.
Saba Kazmi, the coordinator of the International Students Program, described the purpose for the event.
“The International Education Week is initiated by the Department of Education and the Department of State,” Kazmi said, “all the colleges who have international students have been asked to celebrate.”
Kazmi also expressed the importance of International Students day.
“We are educating our students, facult, and staff that we have international students from other countries,” Kazmi said, “it is beautiful to learn culture from them and we can teach them too.”
Overall Kazmi rejoiced in the success of the event and is eagerly awaiting next year’s celebration.
The students were also enthusiastic about the event and eager to get involved. Many participated in a fashion show that included garments from different countries.
The countries represented were grouped into regions such as Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, and South and East Asia. Many participants of the fashion show wore elaborate traditional garments from their countries and some even preformed a cultural dance.
Rafif Aladib, Business Administration major, preformed a dance native of her home country, Syria.
“I like to dance, I think it’s just part of our culture,” Aladib said.
Though many countries were represented at International Students Day, a sense of unity hung in the air.
Michelle Bernardino, comparative literature, feels the event was successful in uniting the students of different cultures.
“It’s a good way of bringing all cultures together and a good way of understanding one another” Bernardino said.