USC students had an opportunity to taste cuisines from around the world at USC’s annual GlobeFest, hosted Tuesday afternoon in McCarthy Quad.
The International Student Assembly, which is a program under the USC Undergraduate Student Government, hosted the event. ISA aims to promote cultural identity and serve as a voice for international students.
By checking into GlobeFest, students received one blue ticket for a dish from one of the six international food vendors: El Pollo Inka boasted authentic Peruvian food; Bronzed Aussie gave students a taste of Australian rolls; Smile Hotdog had Korean street food staples; African Chop brought classic West African flavors; Ackee Bamboo offered Jamaican wraps and smoothies; and Charlie’s Trio provided tiramisu from Italy.
Claire Li, a junior majoring in business administration and cognitive science and the co-executive director of the International Student Assembly, explained that ISA hosts GlobeFest to promote cultural diversity on campus by sharing food.
“GlobeFest is an annual event that we have where we take food from various cultures around the world, bring them onto campus and share them with the USC community,” Li said. “This year we have six different vendors representing six continents from around the world, excluding Antarctica.”
Tejaswa Javankar, a second-year graduate with an MBA at Marshall School of Business, spoke on why GlobeFest is important to him.
“One of the most exciting parts about moving to the US for education is the diversity of cultures,” Javankar said. “This event is a prime example of the variety of food within these cultures. I’m from India, so it’s nice seeing Indian food here, but there’s also a lot of other food from across the world.”
ISA sparked student interest in GlobeFest on Instagram this year. During the week leading up to the food festival, ISA posted daily videos on their Instagram quizzing students on international trivia. In order to earn an extra meal ticket, students could reference the trivia in the videos and fill out a quiz located in ISA’s Instagram bio.
“The main thing that we wanted to incorporate this year was an advocacy component,” Li said. “Lucas, our advocacy chair, actually planned this quiz that students have to take before they can access the food. The quiz is in regards to the six different continents here, so they’re just fun facts about each continent. That way, we hope that there’s a learning process that happens before students get to indulge in the food.”