This blog post was written by Brook during his 3rd year in the Urban and Regional Environments stream.

 

 

 

Multicultural Week is perhaps one of the most exciting and anticipated events of the year. Every year, the York Federation of Students (YFS), which is the student government body on campus, organizes a week filled with different events that showcases the many cultures and the overall diversity of the student body. York has one of the most diverse student population, with students coming from all corners of the world making this week eye opening and eventful. An example of such an event is the Multicultural Food Fair where different cultural clubs and associations showcase their local cuisines allowing students to try out food from all over the world under one roof.

In my second year at York, I joined the Ethiopian Students Association at York (ESAY), which is one of the many student cultural clubs on campus. I had joined this club because I had always wanted to find an Ethiopian community on campus where I can meet people and strengthen my connection with my culture. After attending the Meet and Greet event, I met many students, some of which where in the same boat as me and were international students. I even met a couple of students who had attended the same school I had attended in Ethiopia which surprised me.

I had originally planned to just be a general member who comes out to the events the club organized and maybe even help out with setting up and clean up for these events. However, after becoming close with some members and the executive members of the club (Who run the club and organize the events) I was convinced to participate in the club's Multicultural Week performances. This performance included a fashion show where we would showcase traditional Ethiopian clothing and a dance performance in which we would showcase the many cultural dances of Ethiopia.

Prior to this, I had no experience with performing a show at this scale and the fact that I would be watched by hundreds of students made me extremely nervous. The dance routine in particular featured different dance styles that originated from 8 different ethnic groups in Ethiopia, which made it confusing to plan and understand. The ESAY team however let us know that they only wanted us to dance in the styles we were comfortable in and reassured me that my segment would only last a minute or two. I chose to focus on the Gurage dance which is also my ethnic background and a style of dance that I am familiar with. In the weeks leading up to the performance, we frequently met up to rehearse the routine and I got more comfortable with myself.

Overall I really enjoyed my involvement with ESAY and Multicultural Week. When I joined the club, I just saw it as a way to meet new people that share the same cultural background as me, however my involvement reached far beyond this. I had never imagined that I would one day be showcasing my culture outside of my home country to a diverse community of people. I have now participated in Multicultural Week both in my second and third year and I am noticing that I've become more confident with myself. I am grateful for this opportunity I got to show a little bit of Ethiopia to my friends and the students at York and plan on participating again in my final year.