To celebrate the Intercultural Center’s 25th anniversary, food, music and festivities filled Sherman Function Hall in a student-organized event featuring all of the ICC’s clubs on Saturday evening. 

Each of the clubs held a table featuring food and custom hand-painted banners representing their community. 

“In recent years, nothing like this has happened — all 18 clubs together,” said Lillian Wang ’18, co-coordinator of the event. Wang said that, traditionally, ICC clubs hold events independently or in cohorts of two or three. 

This time, however, “we wanted to represent all ICC clubs in celebration of 25 years … to show people what the clubs offer and to celebrate in our own communities as well … and we thought that the best way to showcase culture is through food,” said co-coordinator Krista Hu ’17. 

The team of five students, also including Eric Lin ’17, Alvin Liu ’18 and Kenneth Hong ’19, are all active leaders of ICC clubs and decided last semester to come together to conceptualize and organize the event.

It was a passion project, said Hong, though he also admitted that coordinating the event between all the clubs was a painstaking process. However, he added, “It’s all worth it … making sure everyone was a part of it. A lot of the students don’t have the time to learn about all the culture clubs and getting a voice for the minorities, that’s what it’s about.”

An attendee of the event, ICC Student Advisory Council leader Tony Tran ’17 describes the ICC network as a welcoming community of “friends and extended family.” Tran said, “If they [students] ever have trouble with things, the ICC family is with them every step of the way.” 

To continue the celebration of the anniversary, the Intercultural Center will be hosting a colloquium workshop and keynote event at the end of the month alongside the annual campus-wide collaborative show, CultureX. 

—Michelle Dang