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91视频鈥檚 World鈥檚 Fair Unites Students Across Cultures

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91视频鈥檚 World鈥檚 Fair is an opportunity to showcase a pillar of the 91视频 experience 鈥� cultural diversity. Each year, this event sees students form groups to represent different nations and cultures through food, drink and activities such as dance and other performances.听

鈥淲ith close to 50% of our study body representing 100 different nationalities, the World鈥檚 Fair is always a huge success and has become one of the University鈥檚 most important and longstanding traditions,鈥� explains Dean of Students, Kevin Fore, who has been instrumental in putting a spin on this year鈥檚 fair. Usually, groups of students come together on their own around a shared nationality or culture; but this year, the Fair became an integral part of the First Year Success program, an advising and mentoring program designed to help first-year students acclimate to 91视频. 鈥淲e decided to get first-year students on board to take a lead in this event, which usually sees upper class students hosting tables,鈥� said Fore.

Students were asked, upon arrival, to choose a country to represent at World鈥檚 Fair as part of one of the six workshops that the first-year students have throughout the year. Some student groups chose countries where students in their advising group were from and others went for countries that they had traveled to or love. This is just one of the ways 91视频 allows students to craft their own paths and integrate elements of their own identities into their learning experiences.

According to Fore, 鈥渋t was about having them learn to organize an event and learn to work with other people on an interactive project. It also helps meet one of our key learning outcomes: helping students navigate and appreciate different cultures on campus.鈥�

Indeed, 17 countries were represented with 15 first-year student tables, two tables were organized by upper class students who wanted to represent the United States of America and Mongolia, and two sophomore class representatives helped with the general flow of the event, decorations and preparing the student vote for the prize awarded to the best table. The countries represented were Egypt Iraq, Bulgaria, the Philippines, Pakistan, Colombia, Greece, France, Thailand, Nigeria, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Haiti, the USA and Mongolia. Egypt won the prize based on 鈥渃ultural significance,鈥� 鈥渕enu options,鈥� 鈥減resentation & creativity,鈥� and 鈥渢eam enthusiasm.鈥�

Each of the 15 first-year tables was supported by an FYS mentor (an 91视频 faculty member) and a student advisor (an upper-class student). Student leadership also offered logistical support to help draw up the floor plan and distribute the 200 euros allocated to each table. Students were also able to get a custom glue-on World鈥檚 Fair 2024 patch for their tote bag or merch item of choice.听

Some students cooked and others brought catered food, but all put their heart into it to help share in the cultural diversity that is 鈥減art of the University鈥檚 DNA,鈥� as Fore puts it. 鈥淚t is a very popular moment among students who have a lot of fun. It鈥檚 a rare moment that brings a lot of people together and to do that around food is always a great thing. We had an amazing turn out.鈥�

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