Tuesday night, people of all cultures gathered together in the Russell House Ballroom for World Night, a program celebrating the differences between people. At 6:30 p.m., the room became filled with different languages, style of dress and cultural interactions. International Student Services organized the night, offering food from different parts of the world for the audience to enjoy while performers danced, sang or took part in a fashion show.
“It’s always been a lot of fun to see all the different places, music and get out of that comfort zone of listening to the same thing all the time,” said recent graduate Fedora Nwachukwu.
It was hard to avoid meeting and talking to people from all walks of life. The hosts of World Night even encouraged socialization at the start of the program, challenging audience members to start a conversation with the people in front of them or behind them. They continued this idea in their banter throughout the night, encouraging people to enjoy a small taste of cultural immersion with each performance.
The audience was treated to a flag procession at the start, followed by performances from the Latin Dance Club, the Bangladesh Student Association and the Korean International Student Association, to name a few, and the event finished with a fashion show.
“It’s really fun because lots of people around the world meet together so we get the chance to see the diversity and culture of all the people around the world,” mechanical engineering graduate student Yeasin Bhuiyan said.
Bhuiyan, who took part in the Bangladesh performance, said their group focused on the popularity of cricket with the younger generations — something important to recognize, even for a generation more focused on soccer. Like the Bangladesh group, other performers also focused their performances on important aspects of their culture. The KISA performance was a lip-sync of a popular K-pop band and the Latin Dance Club dazzled the audience with their smooth moves.
Many cultures were recognized during the night, through the food, the performances or the fashion show, and it created an air of inclusion for everyone there. World Night was a program to make all international students feel appreciated in their cultures, while also allowing domestic students to experience the variety of life that exists in other countries, and in the USC community with its large international population.
Gagan Brar, one of the hosts for World Night, a graduate environmental engineering student, summed the purpose of the event up best: “World peace and unity, people. We need that.”