International Student Council Holds Annual “We Are the World” Event

Story posted March 3, 2023 in CommRadio, News by Abigail Chachoute

The International Student Council (ISC) held their annual “We Are The World” event on Wednesday night, marking its second comeback since COVID.

Heritage Hall was lined with tables where student organizations held activities and had information about the countries they were representing. The evening was also filled with trivia and cultural performances by student organizations.

Among those present was the Korean Learning Club (KLC), a club that teaches about Korean culture at their weekly meetings here at Penn State.

KLC member, Jeongpoem Lee (senior, economics), invited those who stopped by to play the traditional outdoor Korean game.

“The first game is called jegichagi, ‘jegi’ is the thing that you kick and ‘chaigi’ means kicking,” Lee said. “So it means kicking the jegi.”

After completing an activity at a booth, attendees earned a stamp for the passports they received at the start of the event.

This event follows five months of planning by council leaders and committees. Council President, Siddhant Rajoriya (junior, computer science) said that the turnout was greater than they expected and looks forward to holding future events.

“I’d say more than 300 people showed up and that was really good for us,” Rajoriya said. “We’re looking to do this again in the fall, kind of change it up a bit, and plan to develop it in the international months.”

This event was supported by Penn State Global, which supports international students at Penn State campuses and those who look to study abroad.

Before performances began, Brian Brubaker, Assistant Vice Provost for Global Learning, took a moment to speak about the importance of this event in the community.

“I think one of the things I want you to keep in mind as you go away from tonight are the common threads that we can find among different people here,” Brubaker said.

The International Student Council plans to bring this event back next fall.

Abigail Chachoute is a second-year majoring in journalism. To contact her, email axc6070@psu.edu.