What do yo yos, custom cakes, and bubble machines have in common? Unsurprisingly, given the blog title, all were staple parts of the Global Scholars Program’s Culture Show this year! Following months of planning, the Signature Event Leads brought the community together for a catered dinner followed by performances from student organizations around the University of Michigan. Having attended the Culture Show my previous two years in GSP, I was excited to learn about the planning process this time as I helped design the event. From our leadership retreat in late August and beyond, my peers and I were brainstorming ideas for a show that would take place months in the future.
One of the major takeaways that I gathered from the organizing and participating processes was that collaboration really is key, but it also doesn’t always mean that everyone makes every decision together. We began without a date, a venue, or a theme in mind and quickly started to combine ideas until the event was formed. I ended up in charge of the Culture Show decorations. My friend Ali worked mostly on the catering, Autumn on the grants, Nikki on performers, and Robbie on a little bit of everything from budget, to technology, to general run of show. If each of us had consulted the group before making every decision that we had to, we would never have been able to get the logistics settled. In line with the mission of GSP, to equip students with the skills to be interculturally competent leaders, by making the biggest choices together and trusting each other to complete lots of the smaller tasks on their own, we were able to work together effectively and efficiently in a way that paid off during the actual event.
A simple example of this came through my work in decorations. Having decided together that our theme for the Culture Show this year would be “mosaic”, I thought that it would be nice to get a map with the each country represented in the Global Scholars Program printed in a different color, so that people could write a little something about the place that they call home. While I didn’t consult the group much when it came to the rest of the decorations, candy, prizes for activities, or gift bags for students in GSP that were willing to perform at the event, I did allow everyone to have input on the map idea. Making sure that everyone was up to date and involved with the bigger decisions meant that each of the Signature Event Leads knew what was going on and could be a part of all aspects of the night, while trusting each other to pull off the finer details so that everything could be finished on time.
Knowing what everyone’s expectations were and having specific areas for each person to set up also made it easy to know who to ask when someone had a question, and it gave everyone direction so things could run as smoothly as possible on the day of the Culture Show. Luckily, this is exactly what happened. Nikki, Robbie, and Autumn led a dress rehearsal in our performance space while the rest of us arranged the dining area and organized the catered food as it arrived. When we each of us finished our own portion of the preparations, we supported anyone else still at work. We finished setting up right as the event began, then allowed the performers to get their meals. Wherever we encountered a problem, we worked together to solve For example, when we realized we did not have enough seating we reserved another room at the last minute, opening more space as a result.
Everyone having finished their meals, we moved into the event space and began the show. Six student organizations performed dances for the audience, broken up by poetry reading, singing, and charades. Those that had planned the event got to sit back for the most part and enjoy the event with all of the attendees and I thought about how intercultural exchange can be as simple as dancing, writing where you’re from on a map, or sitting with someone new at dinner. GSP aims to expose students to a variety of cultures and perspectives, normally through scheduled events or conversations, but some of the most outstanding and impressionable exchanges happen by simply talking to new people or watching a traditional dance. Though it’s very important to recognize structures of oppression, not every learning experience stems directly from a place of vulnerability or explicit understanding of global systems of power either. One of the best ways to preserve and acknowledge traditional cultures is to appreciate it and to create a space for it to be seen and recognized, which I’m proud that we were able to do at the Culture Show.
In my later reflections about the event, I was struck by how months of preparation were fully realized in the span of a few hours and how quickly, smoothly, and enjoyably the event passed by. Although we were only eating food and watching a show, I felt as though I was able to learn a lot and make connections with people that I don’t normally talk to just by being there and having short conversations. People are usually willing to share a piece of themselves and their background if you create a space for them to, and that space can be as simple as a dancefloor.