For over 200 years, people from all continents, countries and walks of life have come to the United States, making it what many refer to as a “melting pot” of people.

At California Lutheran University, cultural diversity is encouraged and highlighted with many events during International Education Week on campus. These events will take place from Nov. 11-15.

Students will showcase their respective cultures at the event, World Fair. World Fair is held by United Students of the World, a student organization at CLU.

“The World Fair is an event where we [USW] bring food and performances from different countries and cultures together,” said Eve Ngo, vice president of USW.

World Fair will take place on Nov. 13 from 6-8 p.m. at the University Plaza, which is located in between the William Rolland Stadium and the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center.

There are students from over 40 countries at CLU. International enrollment has increased by about 40 percent over the past two years and currently one out of every eight students at CLU is a citizen of another country, according to the university’s website.

“I’m a sophomore, so last year was my first year getting to see the World Fair. I was surprised to see how many countries some of our students come from,” said Multicultural Marketing Assistant Kiana Parker. “I knew that our school was pretty diverse, but I didn’t know how diverse until I saw all of the booths and clubs. It was really cool to see how many cultures were represented.”

Every country or culture that has an affiliated club on campus is represented at World Fair. Each culture receives a booth where it can showcase food and art amongst other cultural aspects of its country.

“The coverage is pretty evenly spread. So, even though some countries may have a larger amount of international students than others, everyone gets one table,” said USW Secretary Qiushi Yang.

“The World Fair is beneficial to our university because it allows our students to see how diverse the student body is and is a place where everyone can learn about other countries’ culture,” Ngo said.

Kevin Post
Staff Writer
Published Nov. 6, 2013