Monday at Memorial Amphitheatre students gathered for the Office of Diversity and Institutional Equity’s (ODIE) first Culture Fest.

“It’s really cool to be able to just chill with people from other countries,” said student Joe Aldossari. “On our campus there are students from China, Japan, Africa and more. They’re all here.”

Though ODIE has been active on campus since 2009, Director Joan Williams said the mission for this particular event was different than that of those prior to it.

“Before, our mission was to welcome multicultural students and their organizations,” Williams said. “Now, we’re extending that welcome to everybody. The event was really designed to increase awareness of diversity. It’s to welcome freshman and advance diversity, which is why we have different genres, foods and cultural competence. It’s the beginning of education initiatives.”

To encourage students to get involved, many cultural organizations, such as the Hispanic Culture Organization, had booths set up around the amphitheatre grounds. Bianca Hernandez said she plans to join the HCO this year and felt the event was a cultural success.

“The food is the best part,” Hernandez said. “It shows that this is really a culture fest because there’s food from all these different countries. The lines are long, but it’s a great way to meet new people.”

Entertainment continued all night, including a Japanese performance, singing by Madeleine Frankford, an interactive Spanish Flamenco, music by J. Forgiven and a closing by DJ Hunter Jackson.

“Just being an Entertainment Industry major, I love hearing the different style of live music,” said student John Newsome. “The live arrangements of peoples CDs are my favorite part of this.”

Though there were many cultures represented, some students didn’t see their own. One student in particular, international student Jonglun Kang, hopes to see that change in the future.

“Many [South Korean] students here are either transfers from Soongsil University or go through the Magellan program,” Kang said. “Because of these programs, it’s kind of hard for us to maintain any kind of club when we’re coming and going so often.”

Yuji Yasaka, a resident of Florence, native of Japan and father of two UNA students, thought the Culture Fest set a strong precedent for future diversity events.

“There was a good turnout with a lot of students from different countries and good entertainment,” Yasaka said. “The university should host this kind of event more often. Many people in Florence are not familiar with other cultures from different parts of the world, so events like this will give opportunities for people to learn about these cultures.”

Kang agreed that the cultural expression and diversity cannot only keep people informed, but build relationships.

“At UNA there are so many people from various countries,” Kang said. “We can’t learn and can’t understand until we talk to them and they share.”

The first Culture Fest was deemed a success by Williams, who said she has already begn planning future events.

“In the spring we’re planning a campus-wide Diversity Week,” Williams said. “We also have the Diversity Student Ambassadors who will be trained to facilitate dialogue and advocate diversity. Our Excel program is partnered with alumni affairs and Career Planning and Development as a sort of three-pronged mentor program.”

With multiple goals for the future and ODIE’s first integrative event completed, Williams sees the takeaway as being one of participation.

“We handed out this information about recruitment and inclusion not only to get our name out, but to show that we want to work with the entire campus,” Williams said. “We want students to read the information on how to begin to think of diversity. People think the term means only a couple of things. We want people to come to these events and leave thinking, ‘I want to be a part of that.’”