Many students waited to gain admission to IU World’s Fare in a line extending from the doors of Simon Skjodt Alumni Hall past the South Lounge of the Indiana Memorial Union on Friday.
The event, a collaboration between the Office of International Services and Union Board, featured delegations from 24 international student organizations. Each organization’s booth showcased artifacts and images depicting aspects of its culture and featured activities for attendees to participate in.
“They put on these beautiful, gorgeous displays that represent artifacts from their home country, traditional clothing, their own language,” said Allison LeClere, a graduate assistant with the Office of International Studies.
LeClere said the organizations put great effort into their booths by using pieces of folk art they already had and creating more pieces of art to beautify their presentations.
The Saudi Student Association made customized name tags in Arabic for their booth’s visitors, while the Malaysian Student Association took photos of visitors standing under a traditional wedding canopy.
The Pakistani Student Association had a cardboard cut-out of a truck on which students could draw — a representation of the popular truck art in Pakistan. The Turkish Students Association had traditional Turkish coffee pots on display and travel brochures depicting important historical landmarks in Turkey.
By participating in the activities, students received a stamp on their passport brochure, which was redeemable for food samples from the various international student organizations.
“One thing we do is try to promote education of our youth,” Myanmar Student Association President Lian Hnin said. “One particular event that happens every couple of months is we’ll bring a busload of high school students here to IU and we give them campus tours and show them what the daily life of a college student is.”
Hnin, a junior, said while Burmese people may be a small population at IU, they are a growing minority.
He said there may be cultural or lingual barriers for some students on campus that make it hard for them to reach their full potential, and part of his organization’s purpose is to create a place for Burmese people to refine themselves as students and members of the greater IU community.
“So we do a lot of outreach through that way because we really want to promote education, not only back in Myanmar but also of Burmese refugees here in America as well,” Hnin said.
Hnin said he sees the United States are now more divided than he originally thought, so his organization’s purpose is as important as ever.
Its goal, similar to the World’s Fare’s, is to create a place for positive interaction between cultures.
“That’s a great way for us to get together — one, because it is a safe place and a fun place for Burmese students, and two, we’re not segregationists,” Hnin said. “We’re not going to be a Burmese group and only be with each other.”
Elizabeth Nino, a member of Omega Phi Beta sorority, said her organization serves an even more important purpose on campus now that the election is over. It is a predominantly Latina sorority focused on the empowerment of women through activism.
Omega Phi Beta’s booth represented the culture of Puerto Rico and featured photos from El Yunque Rainforest and a shoebox meant to represent a popular Latin American holiday, Three Kings Day.
“I feel like now we’re going to try to make people more aware of our culture and get to know them one-on-one so that they do not have preconceived notions of our people and our culture,” Nino said.
“Our motto is actually serving and educating through our diversity, and that’s something we focus on,” Omega Phi Beta member Beatriz Gonzalez said. “People see us as a mainly Latina organization, but we really appreciate diversity.”
Gonzalez said even though Omega Phi Beta’s booth represented Puerto Rican culture, the organization has members from Mexican, Chilean, Haitian and other backgrounds.
“One of our main goals is to help not only women but the community, whatever they may identify as,” Gonzalez said. “We want them to have a safe space, whatever they need, which was one of our goals when we brought the organization to this university.”
The event featured a dance competition with performances from 10 organizations, varying from strictly dance-focused presentations to calligraphy, music and dance medleys.
First place went to IU’s HooSher Bhangra, a group whose dance form originated in the Punjab region of northern India and Pakistan. They performed a series of traditional moves, and part of the performance was done to the popular campus song “This Is Indiana.”
Freshman Rumsha Khan, who serves on the board of the Pakistani Student Association, said the organization seeks to create a welcoming environment, which is representative of Pakistani culture.
“Pakistanis are very hospitable, and all about ‘No, we need to put more food on your plate’ and ‘No, you have to spend the night with us,’” Khan said.
Khan is originally from California but spent the past five years in Pakistan. She said she wanted to find people with whom she could speak Urdu, but it has evolved into much more.
She said given current events, the organization serves an even more important role on campus than before.
Celebration of Pakistani culture is not exclusive to Muslims or even Pakistanis, Khan said, and the organization invites everyone to participate.
“Especially in a place like Indiana, some people probably misunderstand our faith and our culture and why we do things a certain way, and I think it’s important for people to understand that it is not just black and white,” Khan said.
Khan said her organization and the World’s Fare create important dialogue about the appreciation of cultural diversity, both on campus and on a wider scale.
“People will see how friendly and open we really are,” Khan said. “We don’t really fit that stereotypical image everyone likes to paint, and I think it’s important that we’re spreading our culture and our values to everyone.”
