By Peter Ly ’23
For the first time in three academic school years, Bellarmine was able to host an event that was able to celebrate the diversity of the school. Prior to the Global Village, Bellarmine used to have a Unity Assembly in the gym, but now, Bellarmine has an afterschool event that celebrates the multitude of cultural traditions that are present at the school. Different cultural groups on campus are able to set up tables that offer different food to students who want to learn more about or try a bit that group’s culture. This year’s theme was “Rooted in Unity” where we all try to remember that we are all together in the world and that we are united with one another.
So, for this article, I decided to interview different members of the student body about their experiences performing at the Global Village and their thoughts on the event as a whole.
To begin, I talked with Christopher Park ’23 who performed taekwondo at the Global Village. For him, he believed what made the experience of the event meaningful for him was that he believed that he was helping to represent his culture through martial arts; his favorite moment from his performance was when he was somehow able to smash through two bricks. But in addition to his performance, he greatly enjoyed the Indian Student Coalition dance as well as the closing dance at the end of the event.
Another student who helped out at the Global Village, but did not perform was Nathan Gong ’22. Nathan said that he was captivated by the entire event: the flag ceremony, the dances, and the music, and he thought it was one of his best events that he had ever gone to at Bellarmine. For Nathan, he said he enjoyed helping out at the Chinese station where he was able to give out eggrolls to different students who stopped by; moreover, he helped create origami lanterns for decorations. Ultimately, Nathan wishes that he were at Bellarmine another year so that he could be a part of another Global Village that would allow him to show and express his culture to the entire student body.
A student who participated in the event as a part of the ISC was Adarsh Nallapa ’23 who saw the event as a culmination of weeks of effort. He said that a lot of the performances from different cultures came from groups that he had seen practicing around campus for a while. He thought that “it was incredible to see people of different background coming together and enjoying the differnt varieties of food and entertainment”. Adarsh really enjoyed looking at the different cultural decorations that each booth had set up, and that he would definitely love to go back next year irrespective of if he would perform again.
Neal Dwivedula ’23 said that he was at the Global Village to perform with acapella but he thought that “[he] was able to see a lot more than [he] was anticipating”. He said that he was not that knowledgeable about other cultures prior to the event, but the Global Village really let him see more into the roots of his peers. He saw that the beauty of the event stems from the beauty of diversity. Like many other students at the event, he thought that the good was spectacular and that all of the performances were incredible, and he was glad that he was able to experience the event.
According to different students, this year’s Global Village was exciting and enjoyable for them, and we can hope that there are more of these events in the future so that students can enjoy them.