The Graduate Student Assembly and Intercultural Programs jointly hosted the Culture Carnival Feb. 19 to celebrate the boundless cultural groups present at UTD. The event teemed with students from different backgrounds enjoying festive games that tested their knowledge of different languages, cultural riddles, famous cultural landmarks and more. The cheerful environment encouraged students to interact and exchange information about each other’s cultures and traditions while dining on food from around the globe.
Culture Carnival was a part of UTD’s annual iWeek celebration, a week of programs and events that feature international cultures through food, music, performances and activities. Held only for the second time this year, Culture Carnival is a new addition to iWeek’s lineup and quickly won over attendees with its various attractions — among them food.
Pub tables arranged around the room held countless food items such as samosas, chai and spring rolls — all delicacies from different South and Southeast Asian cultures.
“I think such an event is important because we get to meet people from other cultures and we get to know about their culture,” Preeti Vasaikar, a computer science graduate student attending the event, said. “I learned about Malaysian [culture], I learned about their food.”
Vasaikar said her favorite game at the event was icebreaker bingo: the cards required students to ask each other questions that involved culture. Some example cards were “Ask someone what their name means in their language” and “Find someone who speaks three or more languages.”
Another game played at the event was GeoGuessr, where random sounds were played on a speaker and attendees had to guess which country those sounds came from. They received points for answering the correct country and bonus points for guessing the correct sound. Priya Samil, information tech and management graduate, said the game was one of her favorite parts of the event.
Vishva Patel, a cybersecurity, technology and policy graduate and president of GSA, said he felt passionate about creating an event like Culture Carnival because it allows different people to share their communities with one another.
“We [GSA] try to bring more cultures together,” Patel said. “We try to do fun events for them like a fashion show, doing events where they represent their culture, they sing songs from their cultures, they teach people about their dressing styles and everything.”
Patel said Culture Carnival was a way to introduce students to new practices and spread awareness about underrepresented cultures, so students from those lesser-known communities can feel more welcome at UTD. By pushing students to engage in interactive activities, they get to experience different parts of the world and new customs, traditions, languages and foods.
GSA will continue organizing events like Culture Carnival in the future and hopes to collaborate with some of the cultural groups at UTD, according to Patel. Attendees like Vasaikar said they were eager for more events like it in the future.
“The best part is students showing up with different expectations,” Patel said. “Once they come to know about the different games that we can make them play, it’s fun for them and seeing their happiness is something that brings me joy.”
