On April 10, the Trinity Diversity Connection partnered with multiple student organizations to put on its annual Taste of Diversity event where cultural groups had the opportunity to showcase their cultures through food.
Ella Oduguwa, first year and secretary of the Trinity Diversity Connection, explained that the Taste of Diversity was meant to bring people together to experience different cultures in a casual way.
“Taste of Diversity was an event put on by the Trinity Diversity Connection to help bring awareness of other cultures to people on our campus. It was meant to be a less formal event than, say, our diversity dialogue. At Taste of Diversity, people could just come, mill around, eat and have fun learning about different cultures,” Oduguwa said.
Oduguwa explained that there were many booths at the event providing food and showcasing their respective cultures, adding that there are plans to make the event even bigger in the years to come.
“We had stations set up where people could go to look at different cultural groups and pick things to eat from. There was a lot of music playing, and quite a few of the booths were interactive, too which was really nice and fun,” Oduguwa said. “Next year we are planning to try and make it a lot more of an interactive event. We’re definitely going to amp it up by a lot for next year and the years to come.”
Oduguwa hopes that those who attended the event will now have a broader perspective of the many different cultures that may be found on campus and around the world and that attendees will be more open to experiencing them as well.
“I hope they found that there are aspects of different cultures that they can try and experience and even enjoy. I hope that they are now more open to different cultures and ideas. I think having a less formal event made it more accessible to students and easier for them to have fun while they learn about cultures different from their own,” Oduguwa said.
Momo Setamou was excited to share her experience as a part of the Taste of Diversity event.
“I worked the Black Student Union booth, where we served sweet potato pie. People love pie, so our booth had a pretty good turnout.”
Setamou explained that she believed Taste of Diversity was successful in bringing students out to experience other cultures.
“I think it’s one of the best events that Trinity has done so far in terms of promoting diversity. In all reality, we’re not a hugely diverse campus, so it was nice to see the majority come out and try to experience different cultures outside of their own,” Setamou said.
Setamou continued to discuss how important she finds it that Trinity’s cultural groups came together to promote both their individual cultures and general diversity on Trinity’s campus.
“Overall, it was really nice. There were different groups of people who are generally underrepresented here on campus, so it was nice to see them collectively showcase their cultures in different kinds of ways, whether through foods or artifacts or whatever they chose to help represent them,” Setamou said. “That’s important in college.”
