Last Wednesday, on April 9, 2014, the Hayden lot filled up with a hundred people at 1:00 p.m. Within half an hour later, the crowd ballooned up to a few hundred more because the Ethnic Student Council (ESC), the umbrella organization of ethnic Registered Student Organizations (RSOs), held its annual UNITY Carnival. UNITY Carnival is Stevens’ biggest annual multicultural campus event held to showcase different ethnic RSOs. It is also a part of UNITY series of celebrations by ESC, which will be ended by the UNITY Show scheduled on Friday, April 11, 2014 in the Canavan Arena.
A total of ten ethnic RSOs participated in the carnival, namely Filipino Association of Stevens Tech (FAST), Malaysian Student Association (MASA), Brazil Student Association, Indian Undergraduate Association (IUA), Korean Student Association (KSA), Latin American Association (LAA), Stevens Italian Club (SIC), Black Student Union (BSU), Chinese Student Association (CSA) and Polish American Cultural Society (PACS). The carnival is also joined by Five Elements, Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE), Alpha Phi Omega (APO), and Lambda Upsilon Lambda (LUL).
The theme for this year’s UNITY Carnival is “Family”, aiming to bring a sense of belonging to students of different ethnics. “This year, we focus to be more colorful with the family theme and including more interactive games”, said senior student Ruby Romero who is also the former president of Ethnic Student Council. She was happy with good turnout of the whole event.
Visitors were given an “ESC Passport”, a booklet that has ten “stamp” slots that can be filled with stickers from each respective ethnic RSO. A lot of interactive games were made available by each RSO. By having interactive games, the ethnic student organizations can highlight their culture in the best way imaginable for the visitors. All booths were operating throughout the carnival. However, about an hour after the start time, the crowd was entertained by a Hip-hop dance performance by Five Elements.
“If you are not able to make it this year, try to come next year”, said Romero, who is a 5/5 Civil Engineering student, inviting everyone to be part of the UNITY celebration. Diane Sagan from MASA was also glad to be part of UNITY Carnival this year. “Serving food to others is the best part because I like to see the smile on people’s faces,” said Sagan who served as Social Chair in ESC in the previous academic year.
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