By Sariah Lake
In the first week of March, the University of Essex Student Union presented a series of events surrounding cultural unity on campus. This initiative is spearheaded by VP International, Adrian Wong.
The week kicked off with a flag parade (on March 4th) where students were invited to walk through campus waving their country’s flags. People came together for this parade of cultural sharing in the squares, with opening speeches by Adrian and the Vice Chancellor. The week continued with an international quiz night at Top Bar (March 5th), a language cafe (March 6th), a cultural market in the squares (March 7th), and the final event, a One World Essex mixer (March 8th).
In an interview with Rebel, Adrian shared his personal connection to these events as a former international student himself.
“One World Essex always is one of the SU’s top priorities. We want to build a home away from home. This year I am glad that we made some new attempts and tried to represent our international community.”
He also added that this is the first time that One World Essex has hosted a language cafe and that he loves coming together with the other members of the SU to put on these events for students.
Another SU official, VP Education, Joe Holmes was also a participant in One World Essex and attended the flag parade. Joe states that the parade is one of his favourite events of the year.
“You can see very clearly- in very bright colours- how Essex is truly the world in one place.”
Joe also acknowledges that diversity is key to education, “As VP Education, this is particularly special as it recognises our international community which really gives back to education.
Having diverse perspectives in the educational environment is transformational. Everyone gets to see and hear different ways of doing things.”
Overall, this year’s One World Essex was another beautiful display of the cultures which make up the University of Essex, shedding light on the population of international students which makes up 44% of the students.