Students, staff and family members had a chance to share their cultures through music, dance and sixteen other kinds of performances during Global Cultural Night on Friday.

Sarah Dodoo, president of the Association of International Students and a second-year graduate student majoring in family and consumer sciences, is a from Ghana and said one of the goals for nights like this is to be able to mix different cultures together and share a level of respect for one another, something this entire week is dedicated to.

“Global Cultural Night is just the kick-off event for the (International Education Week), where we (celebrate the) benefits of international education,” she said.

There were several different kinds of activities for people to participate in before the performances began, such as tables that contained pictures from different countries as well as tables where people explained their cultural clothing.

Students in the audience said that they had found out about the event from posters and signs that were hanging around campus and that they had been looking forward to the event and all the other things that would be taking place on campus this week for International Education Week.

Dodoo said she was excited to experience Global Cultural Night for the first time.

“I have been here for just a year and I was away for the last global culture event,” Dodoo said.

There were a number of PowerPoints throughout the night, some of them being all images of different students from different countries and others including translations.

Students came on stage and welcomed people in their languages, which included French, Sinhalese, Spanish, Yoruba, Chinese, Korean and Telugu.

Some performances included a dance by the Latin American Student Organization, an Indian Song performance and a Ghanaian Jama Performance.

Eastern President David Glassman, who spoke in between the performances, said he was glad Eastern is able to spend a week celebrating diversity.

“Today we live in global society and in a global society we must all learn to live and work and love together,” Glassman said. “(International Education Week is about) bringing our cultures together and talking and sharing and finding out the wonders and the beauties of different cultures.”

Glassman said that he was excited to see all the performances and he finds it to be amazing that the campus is able to construct events like this one with such a great turnout.

Imani Tapley can reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].