
On March 31, the Student Assembly’s Cultural Affairs committee organized International Fair Day, a festival for international students to celebrate their cultures and Hamilton’s cultural diversity. International students staffed tables in the Fillius Events Barn that shared clothes, food, photographs, music, and the languages and culture of their home countries.
In total, 15 different countries were represented by students, including Bhutan, China, Columbia, Ethiopia, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Russia, Sudan, Sweden, and Yemen. Students, staff, and faculty who attended the event were able to sample culinary delights from around the world. Highlights include specialties such as Yemeni coffee, Colombian tostones, Korean noodles, Pakistani pakora, and Indian chicken tikka masala.
While serving the foods, international students at their tables were given the opportunity to share information both about the food and about broader respective cultures. Many tables had traditional crafts or handed out postcards, and others had interactive exhibits. The table representing Yemen allowed women to try on traditional Yemeni jewelry, and men to wrap their heads in Yemeni head scarves. Additionally, the Sudanese table offered people the opportunity to smell Sudanese incense and sample traditional perfume.In a statement made for the Hamilton website, Jiin Jeong ’21 is a representative on Student Assembly and the chair of the Cultural Afairs Committee. Jeong, who is an international student from South Korea herself, spearheaded the planning for the event and stated that “This event was planned with the goals of bringing the community together, providing the campus with a fun and educational event, and providing a space for students to embrace their cultural background, whether it is their country of origin or country of heritage. I loved that throughout the event, people were asking questions and taking time to learn about a new culture, and these are conversations that I hope our community will continue to have even after this event.”
The International Fair marked the beginning of a series of cultural events at Hamilton. The day of the festival came the day prior to the start of Refugee Solidarity Month, which is a college-wide event. In addition to the International Students Fair Day, Hamilton will also be hosting an international food festival. On April 9, Pakistani-British novelist Kamilia Shamse ’94 conducted a book reading and gave a talk in line with Refugee Solidary Month. Several other events, including a performance by the band Journey West, will take place throughout the month.
