By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau
Culture Fest 2020 was so popular the passports ran out.
The festival on Grand Canyon University’s Promenade Friday night, March 6, featured 14 countries and included cultural booths, as well as cultural and inclusion clubs representing African-American culture and identity.
More than 700 participants got passports to travel “All Around the World,” the event theme, and partake in ethnic food, learn about a country or write their name in their language. Several groups performed, including traditional Hawaiian, Native American and Filipino clubs.
More than 90 countries are represented in the GCU student body, so Multicultural Office Manager Donald Glenn said the event gave students a tangible reference to other cultures.
“It’s important for students to see presentations or dances, hear the stories and traditional music, and taste their foods. We tried to have the taste, touch, sound, sights of the country, all the senses that help experience what a culture is,” he said.
It was the largest event for his office this year.
“It was nice to see students excited to learn about other cultures, but it also was nice to see students excited about sharing their culture,” Glenn said.
International student Cynthia Shekinah, born in India and raised in Rwanda, said she got the chance to learn how others live, and afterward, “I feel like I was more woke culturally.”
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected] or at 602-639-6764.
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