International Day Brings AUC’s Diversity to Life

By: Mariam Salah and Salma Fouad

@MaryamFSalah @SamHisham

It was a picture perfect day – starting with a crisp blue sky and ending with a starry night, when the New Cairo Campus hosted the Centennial International Day to celebrate diversity and unity.

On March 4, International Day gave students from around the world a chance to showcase their cultures through traditional clothes, food, performances and to go around the booths to talk to the representatives of each country.

The representatives were first introduced on stage with their national anthem playing, and some performed after the introductions took place.

Meanwhile, the booth showcased a little taste of each country, whether through traditional food, products – such as handmade clothing, or general information that representatives were glad to share.

“I am very happy to be here today to represent our culture and all of its worth. I think it’s really good when you have people from different parts of the world, different parts of Africa, and let Africa know that we are diverse, but we’re also very similar to each other. So, I’m happy to be here in Egypt,” said Biafra Okoronkwo, Nigeria Representative.

The participants each tried to offer a little window into their cultures and heritage.

“It is impossible to introduce my entire culture, so I single out one thing, Japanese calligraphy and my language, which is totally different than Arabic and English. So, I’d like to show them how it sounds and how it’s written,” said Gen Hirota, representative of Japan and a graduate student from AUC’s Global Affairs program.

“Palestine is the land of all religions. So, it is important for us to be present today. I’m a Palestinian Egyptian, and my job, as both a Palestinian and an Egyptian, is to showcase my Palestinian heritage to Egypt on a day like this,” said Abdelhaid Husseiny, undeclared freshman and Palestine representative.

AUC President Francis J. Ricciardone told The Caravan that the day captured the spirit of what AUC is all about.

“Seeing all those students in their national costumes made me really proud to be at AUC, as Egypt’s global university. I don’t know if any of the other universities would even think about doing it [international day] this way …. I really love it,” he said.

The event was organized in collaboration with the Cairo International Model United Nations (CIMUN) – a first for the organization.

Maryam Hatem, CIMUN organizing committee head, said that this event took place because the organization was trying to do something other than just hosting conferences as it has done for several years now.

Hatem added that this was also a chance for them to give back to the community.

“We felt like it was a good opportunity to collaborate with the university in something like the International Day because it poses a big part, or mandate, of the UN. We also got UN agencies to talk about sustainable development goals, and in general talk about the mandate of the UN,” said Hatem.

This venue was much larger than the traditional International Day events of previous years. While entry was free to the community and non-AUCians as well, guests were asked to register online and receive their passes at the campus booths. By 8am on the day of the event, there were no passes left.

Ziyad Rushdy, CIMUN’s graduate advisor, told The Caravan that organizing the event was a challenge; however, teamwork made everything run smoothly.

“We were able to overcome all the difficulties even if we had a few crises coming up last minute. We were able to manage. It’s a learning curve for us. It’s the first year and we’re learning from it. Later on we can do it more efficiently and better every year,” said Ziad.

In addition to the other festivities, performers Mahmoud El Esseily, Disco Misr and Strawberry Swing also took to the stage to perform to the audience marking this International Day as the greatest one yet.

“I am very happy to be here today. I visited all the booths that are presented. A lot of effort has been put into the display of these different nations, which are more than 40 different nations, and it is unprecedented,” said Journalism Professor Mervat Abou Ouf.