Campus celebrates cultural diversity at fair

The International Education Centre brought back the Culture Fair on Nov. 23, following a well-received debut earlier this year.

There are numerous cultures that make up the international community at Algonquin College. There were booths at the college dedicated to the different countries and cultures that are represented, along with games and foreign snacks.

“We’ve done this in the past (at) the culture fair where students get invited to kind of put together a team, usually from their country of origin, and then they are encouraged to put together a booth that represents their country, as well as to bring in some snacks and anything that they really want to showcase that represents their culture/country,” said Leah Grimes, intercultural programming support officer with the International Education Centre.

Each year, educational establishments and governments worldwide celebrate International Education Week during the third week of November to acknowledge, honour and advance international education on a global scale.

“We’re showcasing the different things that are going on in the International Education Centre, we have cultural activities and events funds, where students if they have culture activities that they want to put on, we support them financially. They do all the planning and we help with logistics for booking spaces and stuff like that,” said Grimes.

Algonquin College demonstrates through the event the diversity of the student community. Domestic students get the chance to socialize with international students and educate others about their backgrounds.

“In this cultural fair, we want to represent our country which is Morocco, as an African country. It’s contributed in many things such as in the World Cup. A lot of people don’t know where Morocco is situated and we want to present them the many different cultures in our country,” said Safae Moudkar, a business management and entrepreneurship student.