Celebrating diversity

MC’s annual Intercultural Fest

By Lela French
Courier Staff

Monmouth College 's 11th annual Intercultural Festival, which took place Saturday, Sept. 17 on Dunlap Terrace, drew a large crowd of hungry and interested visitors.

The festival featured entertainment, cuisine and depicted different cultures from around the world.

This event was sponored by Intercultural Life and included a 45-minute show featuring different kinds of dancing.

Many families from around the community were brought together in addition to students who were interested in learning more about different cultures.

All were encouraged to sample the food cooked by those involved in Intercultural Life.

Junior Darren Jackson commented how he expected to have “weird tasting food,” but soon realized it was tasty.

Jackson enjoyed the entertainment saying, “I would never have the chance to visit all of these places and now I feel as if I did visit those places, in a way.”

Almost a dozen countries were represented at the festival including Laos , Thailand , Nepal , China , Japan , Mexico , Czech Republic , Scotland , the UK and Ireland .

Junior Amy Gustaf said, “The festival was great” and she particularly enjoyed the gallo pinto, which is a dish made of beans and rice.

She further added, “I decided to go because I studied abroad in Costa Rica this summer and Monmouth College now has an exchange student from the university where I studied at in Costa Rica .”

The food and entertainment were all free and open to the public.

Students and those of the community were encouraged by sponsors of Intercultural Life to come every year and learn more about the different cultures of the world.