Haemi Kim and Yee Lim Shin—Staff Writers

Snow blew outside on Feb 23 as the Grille area filled with laughter and music in different languages. It was a Saturday night, and the air buzzed with anticipation as people lined up at booths to taste different types of food from around the world.

Hosted by the Students Without Borders Club, students from 23 countries in Asia, North and South America, Africa and Europe brought a taste of home to Iowa.

The Cultural Fair consisted of three sections: a time to eat and look at the different booths from various countries, a time marvel at the colorful traditional clothing in the fashion show, and a chance to enjoy the breath-taking performances by Dordt students.

“I thought it was interesting to see all of the different cultures of Dordt students and try the different foods,” senior Josh Vollink said.

With their theme of “Take a Trip with Us,” the emcees, juniors Alan Park and Sarah Siglin, took the role of pilot and flight attendant for the event. They gave out programs in the shape of passports so people could ‘fly’ from booth to booth and get stamps in each country.

“I really liked emcees Sarah and Alan. They were hilariously genuine, and I thought the airplane and ‘Take a Trip with Us’ theme was really fun,” sophomore Danikka Jackson said, “ The references to the fire alarms going off in East Campus and the invisible seat belts were some nice touches.”

Photo by Ellie Jasper

“I enjoyed going around and getting signatures from every person at each booth,” junior Elizabeth Eckels said. “I really wish I could’ve kept my passport.”

The fashion show consisted of a variety of different clothing from different countries. There were also a variety of performances shown in the talent show.

“My favorite part was probably watching the Koreans perform martial arts,” junior Allison Wordes said. “Who would think of putting Tae Kwon Do to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack? That was pretty lit.”

Although eating different types of food, looking at different types of clothing and listening to different types of music are all important, the real key of Cultural Fair is how it brought all of the countries together in one school and one community.

“I loved how people were proudly teaching and showing others about their cultures,” said Grace Son, who was part of the Korean booth. “I felt like I became an ambassador of my country, so I really wanted to do my best and I saw a lot of people doing that as well – the effort and time that they dedicated was priceless.”