Leonor Carrasco, the International Club adviser, is currently organizing the upcoming Global Celebration event, taking place on November 21, 2024,10am–1pm, at the GCC Center Mall, SU-CCS (Student Union-Counseling & Career services center) Breezeway. It will celebrate cultural diversity through a variety of activities and displays that promote different global traditions. 

During the interview, Carrasco talks about the Global Celebration as

A festival that aims to celebrate the rich cultural diversity in our campus community, and promote the awareness and appreciation of global traditions.

She also talks about working in the International Student Department and that they all wanted to promote global education through this event. The event helps present global education by creating fun activities and displays based on diverse cultures for students to see and experience. Some things that will be set up are performances, music, food, artifacts, traditions, and games. 

For the performances, Carrasco plans for there to be a fashion show, mariachi band, and dancers. During the preparation process for the event, Carrasco asks for some classes and clubs to join and help participate in the performances and activities; there’s the Japanese club that works on origami and writing, the mariachi class that does a few musical performances, and the dance class that performs some traditional dances. The fashion show consists of people modeling a variety of traditional clothing from different nationalities. She is still in need of volunteers to help with the fashion show since she couldn’t contact the group that participated last year. 

For the food, Carrasco would have a couple of food trucks selling different cultural dishes like Indian fry bread, Korean barbecue, and Venezuelan empanadas. She’s trying to get some food trucks to come out for this coming event. The rest of the activities that will be or are planned to be present at this year’s Global Celebration are henna tattoos, booths selling handcrafted items, jewelry, and displayed artifacts from around the world. There will also be games that the students can play to win prizes and treats. Last year’s games included collecting stamps or playing mini golf. 

The event takes a long time to prepare. Carrasco says, “It’s something that we plan at least six months before the event…sometimes a year in advance.” She has to make sure she contacts and works with all the people she wants to run the activities, displays, and performances early on to make time for the setup process. This also depends on whether they agree on joining the event or not. Carrasco also mentioned that she would like for more students to participate, to help with the event arrangements. If someone wants to express their culture and teach it to other students, they are welcome to share their ideas with Carrasco about it and give their take on how it can be presented at the event.