For the culture! Community and joy at International Night

SCISO’s annual International Night is full of joy and community for all

By M Yeager

International Night is one of the biggest events of the academic year that the St. Catherine International Student Association (SCISO) puts on during the spring semester. The 42nd International Night took place on Friday, April 26 in the Rauenhorst Ballroom after previously being postponed from April 5 due to a logistics issue with catering.

A lot of planning goes into International Night, and when the SCISO board took the stage at the end of the event, they noted that the board worked hard for three months to be able to put the event on. Speaking with SCISO President Zahra Abufoor ‘24 (Respiratory Care), there are a lot of moving parts to the event. The club works with University Events to book and create the setup for the event in the ballroom. In addition, the club organizes outside catering and performances from both students and outside performers.

Performances and other pictures from the event

One of the most challenging aspects is finding student performers, as many are not aware of International Night, especially after the pandemic.

“We were still working extra hard to try to get students to perform,” said Abufoor. “This year, the most challenging thing was getting outside professional performers. There’s a lot that goes into it, a lot of paperwork, a lot of planning.”

Prior to the pandemic, many of the performers were students and student organizations. SCISO would then acquire catering and work with University Events to book and set up the space. During the pandemic, International Night was held virtually, with SCISO showing videos from previous International Nights.

The call for student participation and the purpose of the event as a whole is to allow students to share their own cultures with the wider St. Kate’s community.

“There is a significant amount of the student body who come from different cultural and ethnic groups that would love to have a chance to showcase something from their culture to the St. Kate’s community,” said Abufoor.

With the logistical catering issue for the event, there were some wrenches thrown into the process of postponement and finally putting the event on. SCISO went to University Events and tried to figure out when the ballroom would be available next.

“We were even willing to do it on a weekday or a weekend, even though we were planning to do it Friday,” said Abufoor. “As long as we can have the ballroom, we’ll try to be flexible.”

The next step was reaching out to performers and the DJ to make sure that they would also be available for the new date. All were available, but there was the challenge of changing and resigning the contracts with outside vendors with the new date.

“I think we just got lucky that everyone was still available,” said Abufoor.

There were five performers during International Night: two students and three outside professional performers. These performances shared aspects of cultures from around the world, from Somalia to German-speaking Europe to Cambodia.

As both an audience member and a performer, the feeling of joy and community permeated the room as we appreciated the sharing of many different cultures as a whole. As a performer, the words and displays of support that the SCISO board members and the audience shared allowed me to appreciate my own culture a little bit more, even if my performance was a presentation on my favorite German words.

One of the most fun performances of the night was when Peruvian dance group Mi Peru invited the entire audience to dance with them. At one point, a large circle formed with audience members and performers each going into the middle and doing their own mini performances.

Another attendee, Victoria Lo ‘27 (Business Administration/Communication Studies) initially came for the food but stayed through and enjoyed all the performances as well as the after-party. Lo said her favorite was “the first one [Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli], because I love that they incorporated all the family there, especially like little kids of all ages.”

All in all, International Night 2024 was a success in meeting its goal of sharing cultures present within the St. Kate’s community. While the next International Night is about a year away, think about attending and perhaps even performing something from your own cultural background.

For more information on SCISO and International Night, email sciso@stkate.edu.