Event featured international performances, student booths and workshops
By: Julianna M. Pietak
With more than 370 students from 73 countries, Barry has an almost unparalleled mix of cultural and national diversity. The university annually celebrates this diversity by hosting the Festival of Nations, held last week on Friday, April 18.
An African Dance Ensemble, 11-piece Afro-Cuban group and Polynesian fire and drum performance were among the highlights of the day, which also included annual events such as morning workshops for local elementary school children and more than 16 booths set up by Barry international students representing their home countries.
The booths are fully student-run and represent a range of nations including Brazil, Nigeria and The Philippines. International students from each of the respective countries manage each of these, giving away items from that country, serving traditional food or just providing information. Meanwhile, cultural performance groups such as those listed above present routines every half hour from 12 to 8 p.m.
The day began with educational workshops, aimed at raising cultural awareness among a younger age group. More than 65 second through fifth graders from local elementary schools came to campus for the annual workshop, which uses arts and crafts to educate this year’s chosen country, Egypt.
This is the 13th year Barry University’s Intercultural Center has presented the event. The event celebrates the university’s true ethnic and national diversity – numbers that have contributed to U.S. News and World Report consistently ranking Barry at the top of its list for campus ethnic diversity for universities in the South.
