As Brown first-year student Max Ding and Rhode Island School of Design junior Emma Kuo served up small cups of Taiwanese-style braised-pork rice, they said the International Festival helps bring visibility to the University’s international student community, which is one of Brown’s many strengths.

“It’s great that there are a lot of people that you can speak your own language with at Brown, and you get to learn about other people’s languages and cultures,” said Ding, who is Taiwanese-American and speaks Mandarin. 

“This is a very diverse student body, but it’s rare to see it in person like this,” said Kuo, who is on the executive board of the Brown Taiwan Society student organization. “Everyone loves food and so I think it’s such a nice way to get to know other people and walk around and exchange food.”

Students served food, sold crafts, played traditional games and offered information at tables set up around the hall, including juniors Sadia Qazi and Hania Khan, members of the Pakistani Students Association at Brown, whose spread included mango lassi drinks, a chance to play the popular Pakistani board game ludo, and a basket of Pakistani-made jewelry for sale.

“I think the international student community brings so much to any space, and brings global perspectives from every walk of life,” Qazi said. “I think it’s one of the things I love most about Brown — that I came here and I can talk to anyone from any corner of the world, from places I’ve never been able to travel to yet, but I get to experience it through them.”

On the Sayles stage, a range of student performers entertained the crowd, including East Asian dance performed by members of Brown’s Molì Dance Company, and Middle Eastern Levantine folk dance by the Dabke Club.

“Having the chance to express our traditions and express what we do back home is really helpful and helps us feel supported,” said sophomore Luciana Chiu Vera from Lima, Peru, who served arroz con leche, a fruity dessert made with purple corn called mazamorra morada, and a chicken stew called ají de gallina.

For Ukrainian undergraduates Olha Burdeina and Sofiia Kozynets, who donned traditional embroidered shirts called vyshyvanka, the festival offered both an opportunity to share some traditional foods and customs, and a chance to experience the rich array of cultures represented across the student body.

“I like the multicultural perspective and the ability to represent my country and to showcase that Ukraine is much more than just the war-torn country that is fighting for freedom and democracy — it’s also about these cultural traditions that we want to share with other people and connect with other students,” said Burdeina, a junior. 

The lure of the free, homemade food and entertainment drew hundreds of students to the event, some of whom queued outside the doors ahead of the start of the festival on Saturday morning, noted Syrina Robinson, program coordinator for Global Brown, who checked Brown IDs and handed out meal tickets as students arrived.

The International Festival is the largest annual community event that the Global Brown Center organizes.

“It’s very important for us to recognize the beautiful stories of each of our students, and to bring those stories in front of everybody as a larger community, and we are dedicated to that,” Cheng said. “Our students want to have this platform to showcase their culture — and they are contributing so much to the Brown community, through culture, language and perspectives.”