Coming together to celebrate linguistic diversity, hundreds of students gathered at the Chamberlain Student Center Pit to learn about the numerous forms of diversity and inclusion programs and clubs that Rowan offers at Linguafest. 

On Sept. 24, clubs and programs, such as the Japanese Culture Club, Italian Club, Arabic Club, and the ESL program, all had their own booths and different ways to teach students about the importance of diversity. 

The event started at 11 a.m. and slowly but surely, students started to flood the area, as they asked questions, played minigames, and enjoyed some food on the side from various international cuisines. 

Shannon Hurley, 30, the senior international student and scholar adviser for the Rowan International Center, made it clear what this event was all about. 

“We really want to educate the Rowan population about cultural and international diversity here,” said Hurley. “I think it’s important for the students to know who their fellow students are.”

Jasmine Kobeissi, 21, is an accounting major and is the treasurer of the Arabic Club here at Rowan. She believes that a lot of students only hear about Arabic cultures on the news.

“We want to bring our culture out there, so we want to get people to know our food, our language, what we do, our dances, our dialects,” said Kobeissi. “Not a lot of people know about Arab cultures; it’s mainly what they see on the news.” 

Students even participated in learning the alphabet in sign language when 21-year-old Zoey Staubitz, who is deaf, along with her translator, helped them practice with a piece of paper that had A-Z in sign language in the students’ hands.  

“I want people to be aware of the deaf community and the language itself. ASL is its own language and its own culture, it’s not a mixture of English,” said Staubitz. 

Near the left-hand side of the event was the Japanese Culture Club, which had a minigame to write a word in hiragana, and if you got it right, the prize was a piece of Japanese candy. 

Cameron Wilburn, 26, and the Japanese Culture Club share the same goal: to teach students about Japanese culture. But not only did they want to teach students about Japanese culture, but Wilburn, along with the club, also wanted to provide a space for the many Japanese students who come to Rowan to feel included. 

“We want to teach students here at Rowan more about Japan’s culture and history, and this is a very diverse campus; we have a lot of different cultures and communities,” said Wilburn. “We have a lot of Japanese students coming to Rowan, and they’re like, ‘Is there anything here for us?’ and we’re like, ‘Yeah.’”

With international studies, multicultural and inclusion clubs, and events like Linguafest, Rowan continues to expand their international reach, and the students are encouraged to be a part of that. 

“It’s important to learn about other cultures and learn about the global impact that Rowan has,” said Hurley. 

For comments/questions about this story, DM us on Instagram @thewhitatrowan or email [email protected]