Representing the minorities on campus, Ethnic Student Council’s (ESC) most important event of the year stole attendees from other impressive events on campus including an Off Center event.
Even still, only half of the seats were taken. Apart from the impressive dances which the ethnic organizations prepare for the competition, UNITY also ushered in a new ESCE Eboard.
Hosts this year were Student Government Association (SGA) President Kristen Romanowski and Entertainment Committee and Boken Chair, Brandon Griffen, who also provided entertainment of their own in between performances.
It could be said that this year was special for UNITY because of the sheer amount of unusual happenings. The Malaysian Student Association (MASA) sent a video in absentia depicting . Israeli organization Hillel joined the list of organizations performing. Also, for the first time in years, the Chinese Student Association (CSA), a regular UNITY participant, left out of the competition. According to current Secretary Kenneth Chan, the organization
created performances around 2 separate people who could not commit to the show. As a result, CSA could not appear onstage. Many members did attend, though, to cheer on the other competing organizations.
This year continued IUA’s UNITY winning streak.
Although some changes did occur, the show went on with much song and dance on the part of students. UNITY’s backstory-live performance (including voiceover)-format remained in effect. The Korean Student Association’s performance was highly reminiscent of “A Cinderella Story: Once Upon A Song”‘s storyline in that at least two named performers turned out to be taking credit for the singing and dancing of others. Its use of korean pop-styled dancing and singing, which is eerily similar to hip-hop and R&B, to tell a story wowed audience members. The Black Student Union wove dance explicitly into their story of a girl who has to find the pieces to her heart by dancing with her family. Along the way, she learns bits of her cultural background including Capoeira, Dancehall, Stepping, and hip-hop. The scriptwriters even included a comical sequence in which the girl must dance with her elderly, military grandfather. Filipino Association of Stevens Tech took Jay-Z’s remix of “It’s A Hard Knock Life” and crafted a dance which serves a dual purpose – first, to demonstrate the emotionally devoid nature of the orphanage in which they live and second, to have the charges clean the place in preparation of parents’ trial adoption of a child. Most other dances performed were impressive native ones including “Magalaik”.The Latin American Association used the sheer number of people participating in their performance to their advantage and showed off their members’
skills at salsa, bachata, and merengue.
This year’s theme was “Family”. Competitors interpreted “family” in ways ranging from traditional familial environments (most notably BSU) to slightly unorthodox environments (mainly LAA) to highly unusual family settings (FAST’s performance was spot on).
LAA’s interpretation of family began with a poor immigrant couple and their child and ended with a dying father who raised his now-married daughter on his own. Even more unusual is that said daughter managed to graduate from Stevens as an engineer against all odds. The palpable love between the father figure and his daughter reaffirms the feeling of family, even in an unfamiliar setting. BSU’s sketch demonstrated one aspect of familial love via the main character’s brother’s decision to join the military to put his sister through college. Stevens and other college’s growing cost of attendance lends relevance and gravity to this gesture. FAST’s wide net of people belonging in a family was proven with the main character being fought over by both his new adopted family and his older “family” of friends from the orphanage. As he learns of his adopted family’s Filipino culture, he is reminded to never forget them with one poignant line delivered by one of his female friends – “Remember, you have a family here too.”
Other performances of note included a b-bop performance from Five Elements, Technique’s Hip-Hop and Contemporary dance blend to Beyonce, and NAPhi and LUL’s resolved rivalry. NAPhi and LUL, the only two Multicutural Greek Organizations on campus, competed for space via improvised stepping until they joined forces – at which point, NAPhi ditched the cool sunglasses – to do an amazing dance collaboration to a remix of “Poison” by Bell Biv DeVoe.
After all the entertainment was through, the awards for participating at UNITY as well as ESC’s annual awwards. The Most Improved Organization this year was Steven Italian Club with food running out at nearly every event held. IUA was again crowned as UNITY’s winner, and the Advisor of the Year award went to Daniel Galvan, ESC’s own advisor. The new executive board was also crowned as follows : Dharm Patel, President; Christian Cruz Arcilla, Vice President; Austin Chun, Secretary; Social Chair, Albert Lee; Web Chair, Sandra Romero.
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