Fullerton College held its eighth annual WorldFest, an event made to highlight and educate students and staff about the different cultures around the world.
Various campus clubs and organizations hosted theme booths designated to specific cultures to bring awareness of environmental problems affecting the world.
Fullerton College President Greg Schulz was one of the many staff members that attend this years Worldfest. “What I like most about WorldFest it emphasizes the different strengths of diversity and it’s a celebration of art, food and culture. I am thankful for our Cadena Center and all the departments that come together to make Worldfest happen every year,” Schulz said.
The Cadena Center continues to showcase diversity on campus. They believe it is important to show diversity on campus to allow students, from all backgrounds, to be proud of their culture.
The History Club’s booth focused on the history of Earth Day. History major Elizabeth Scalia said, “A lot of people celebrate Earth Day but do not understand why the day exists,” she continues, “Earth Day was founded in 1970, by Senator Gaylord Nelson, due to a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, which led to rallies for climate change.”
The Nutrition club held their booth to educate students on food deserts, which are rural parts in a country, where supermarkets can be at least five miles away from residential areas. The food deserts have people shopping for groceries at their local 7-Eleven or the 99 Cent Store, which is often not the freshest food to consume.
Nutrition major Luis Cueva said, “We need to open and broaden our horizon to different cultures and different ways of thinking and we all need to embrace our differences.”
The FC cafeteria also showcased foods from different cultures with “Tastes of the World” menu. Food items, priced at three dollars each, included Vegetarian Pita with Hummus, Chipotle Glazed Chicken, Spicy Korean Bulgogi Wings and an Italian Cannoli.
The event also included a performance by The Buena Park Senior Center with their Korean Folk dance group. The seniors meet once a week with their instructor, May Chang, to learn traditional dances from the Korean culture.
The dances performed are traditional dances Korean farmers use to celebrate a good harvest. It is performed on special occasions to celebrating peace.
Korean performer, Chong Chung said, “Our dance team consists of 15 dancers. We perform locally and for free wherever we are invited to show our traditional dances from Korean culture.”
There was also a chalk art contest being judged this year. Contestants were judged in three categories, which where culture, the earth and people. The winners from each category was awarded a $100 Fullerton College Bookstore gift card.
Art major Raymond Martinez was one of the winners, he won for his a chalk piece celebrating Earth Day in the Earth Category.
“I can’t believe I won, actually doing it all on the fly. I was trying to conceptualize all of Earth by having the colors represent the day and night cycle with the colors of the Koi fish,” Martinez said.
The other winners of the WorldFest chalk art contest were Andres Martinez for the people category, and Alec Gonzalez for the culture category.
WorldFest ended with Louis Armstrong’ What a Wonderful World, which is a perfect way to close out the festival to remind students to be open to each other’s cultures and beliefs.
