By Ansley Keane ‘23
Staff Writer
At Mount Holyoke, the student body includes hundreds of international students from over 70 countries, representing cultures from across the globe. The International Student Organizing Committee sought to celebrate the diversity of all the cultures and backgrounds of Mount Holyoke students through their annual Global Fest, hosted on Saturday, April 24, both on-campus and online.
“[Global Fest is] a festival for people in different cultures to kind of show off their cultures and their heritage and for students to interact and learn more about the diversity within the school,” Rachel Kang ’23, the co-chair of ISOC, explained.
“We also created it online to include everyone and have people participate on campus because I don’t think there have been really any events on campus, and some people might be feeling isolated or lonely,” April Liu ’23, ISOC’s other co-chair, added. Liu, who is currently living off campus, planned and attended the event remotely.
This year’s Global Fest was hosted both on Pageant Green and at the Gettell Amphitheater. For remote students or residential students who preferred to attend Global Fest virtually, ISOC also created a virtual festival using a Miro board.
Through the Miro board, participants could access a recorded performance by Rainbow Jelly, a Zoom link to watch Raunak Bhangra’s live performances and virtual booths from FAMILIA, AASIA, the MHC Folk Music and Dance Society and ISOC. Students on campus could enjoy the warm weather and visit a variety of booths. The Mount Holyoke Russian Club had materials for students to learn how to write their names in Russian, the Asian Students Association handed out origami kits and Liga Filipina shared Filipino snacks. Raunak Bhangra also gave three short performances at the amphitheater throughout the festival.
ISOC’s decision to host Global Fest both in person and virtually meant that off-campus students could still participate in the festival. “Another goal that we had was to not just use the virtual portion as something that we need to do because everyone’s doing it, but for it to be … an online version of the festival itself, so students who aren’t on campus can actually kind of feel the vibe of what’s going on,” Kang said.
Although the pandemic made this year’s Global Fest look different than it had in previous years, the option to have both in-person and virtual festivals was exciting for Kang. “I’m excited about us being able to do this both virtually and in person, and I think it’s also open to a lot more accommodations, doing it that way,” Kang said.
Kang also explained the importance of being able to host the festival online and in person. “We also experienced not being in the U.S., and we thought it was important for anyone who wasn’t on campus to experience the same things [as the people on campus], which is why we decided to do it both ways, … which wasn’t the easiest to do. We had a lot of things to coordinate,” Kang said.
As members of the class of 2023, this year’s event was both co-chairs’ first Global Fest. “We actually had all the flyers ready, and then we got sent back home, so we weren’t able to host it last year,” Kang explained. Kang hoped that this year’s Global Fest would give students a chance to relax and de-stress. She explained that her goal was “for students to just kind of have time off and just enjoy it, as it is a festival, and celebrate different cultures.”
Successfully (and safely) hosting an in-person event was another one of ISOC’s goals. “ISOC hasn’t hosted an in-person event in a long time, so to kind of do that in a setting where we still follow guidelines and come up with an in-person event was also a goal,” Kang noted.
Ultimately, this year’s Global Fest was designed as a chance for students to take a break from the pressure of their academics and celebrate the diversity of the campus.
“I just hope that they have fun with it, because I know we’re all so tired, … so I just hope that they really just have a lot of fun. We really do have a lot of diversity on campus, and I feel like it’s really important to celebrate it and give people [a chance] to share their own cultural backgrounds,” Kang said. “Celebration and people having fun is the biggest goal I have for now.”