On April 30, from 2-5 p.m., UW-Eau Claire hosted CultureFest in the student center. This event had three floors and many participating community groups and student organizations demonstrating their culture. 

Each organization or group got a room or section of Davies and participants were welcomed to walk around to learn and experience different cultures. Each participant was given a “passport” as a map for the event. 

Chiaxsuan Cheng, a volunteer with the Taiwanese association, said she was motivated to volunteer at this event to help more people learn about Taiwan and its culture. 

“I wanted to introduce our culture along with our technology and great food to the community,” Cheng said. 

Celebrating different cultures is something that’s very important to Cheng. She said it’s very important to learn about other cultures and take the opportunity to listen to people who are different from you when you can.  

“You can always learn new things and it’s always good to learn about other people while letting them know more about you. It’s been really fun and interesting to build this mutual understanding,” Cheng said. 

This event offered many opportunities to experience other cultures and try things event-goers may not have had the means to try before. For fourth-year mathematics and economics student Nyantoe Aungo, trying all the different foods was the best part of the event. 

Besides the food, Aungo said the event was a really cool way to experience other cultures he may not have known about before, and said how important it is to educate ourselves.  

“I am from a different country and when I go around and people ask where I am from and if they know my country, I feel happy. So that’s why it’s important to know each other’s cultures,” Aungo said. 

Aungo said he went to CultureFest last year and said he really enjoyed it. He is now enrolled in a US culture class that advertised it. 

First-year history student Kenzie Scott said she loves traveling and learning about other cultures. She said she thought it would be very cool and wasn’t let down.  

“As a history major, I love learning about the different cultures throughout history and I think it really tells you a lot about people and helps you understand them,” Scott said.   

Tirza Stanelle, a fourth-year communication sciences and disorders student works at the Davies Center and said she was excited to come and check it out. 

“Everybody is so unique and learning about other people and individuals helps us to understand each other better,” Stanelle said. 

According to Stanelle, all the different rooms were very fun. She particularly enjoyed the Malaysia room because they had a bunch of cool activities, and the food in the Africa room was delicious. 

Stanelle and Scott both said they had an interest in having more events like this come to campus.

Heinay Keler, a third-year music education student found out about the event from the advertising around campus and said she was excited to come to check it out. 

“It’s important to have diversity and have people from different cultures learning about each other and having a cultural exchange and learning how to treat each other appropriately,” Keler said. 

Freeman can be reached at [email protected].