Holland College Diversity Fair.

Holland College International Student at Diversity Fair.

(Ella Sarpong) Photo

Kofoworola Tijani greeted people with a smile as she served puff-puff to a line-up of students curious about this Nigerian snack, which tastes like fried doughnut.

Her stand was among the eight setups at the Holland College Diversity Fair day 2 of the week-long event. The cafeteria was filled with people, colours, smells and spices from different countries.

For international students at Holland College, they were able to experience a taste of home.

Some argued about the country with the best jollof rice.

“I’m Nigerian, so I’m going to be biased and say we have the best jollof rice. The only reason people would pick Ghana today is because their jollof is still hot,” said Juliet Nnadi, student at Holland College.

The 8th annual Diversity Fair was an event for international students to be able to share their culture and socialize.

“To see that the college is really interested in bringing people from different cultures and backgrounds together is fascinating,” said Tijani.

Tijani is a member of the African Student Association at Holland College; she represented Nigeria.

Students showcased their foods, clothing, music, dance and national symbols.

The week-long fair featured games from different cultures like the “Ludo” game, which is similar to Monopoly. There also was a cultural celebration with food samples from other countries. The fair ended with an international student showcase where students performed traditional dances from their countries.

“I’m from the Yoruba tribe, everything is special about my tribe, and you can see that through the foods and the clothing, which is what I represented at the diversity fair,” said Tijani.

Holland College currently has 800 international students from 61 countries who were brought together through this event.

“Even during Covid when we were not allowed to gather in person, we still did a virtual Diversity Fair so it’s a really important part of what we do here in the college,” said Julia Clayton, a Recruitment and First year Advisor of Holland College.

The African Student Association headed up some of the events, she said.

“We’ve gotten a ton of feedback from other students, I know the tourism, travel and event management program brought their students to the cultural celebration,” said Clayton.

In the future Holland College aims to host more events like this to bring students together.