activity ii - culturalfest

As one of the two FIUTS CulturalFest Expo Committee co-chairs, I helped run a committee that plans and organizes the annual FIUTS CulturalFest Expo event. This event showcases over 30 different countries and cultures to an audience of over 1000 guests from the greater Seattle community. UW students represent their country or culture by hosting a booth that highlights traditions or cultural topics they would like to share, and guests are free to walk around and explore the different booths. Within the committee, we focus on recruiting students and student organizations to host booths, find booth captains to help facilitate the event, promote the event, and make sure everything runs smoothly.

Our overall goal for CulturalFest Expo is to be able to share the diversity of culture that is found in the UW and Seattle communities. I worked with the other co-chair to recruit committee members, arrange and host committee meetings, delegate tasks to committee members, and report on our progress to the FIUTS Student Board. I kept track of committee members and took meeting minutes, maintained the spreadsheet that tracks our outreach progress, as well as answered questions about the event from either committee members or the UW community. I strived to create an inclusive, fun environment both at committee meetings and at CulturalFest Expo.
This year's FIUTS CulturalFest Expo was a great success, and I am proud to have been one of the co-chairs of the event. We showcased many countries through both our in-person expo as well as our online exhibits. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a few hundred people come to the event, which was very exciting and rewarding to see.

Throughout the last few months, my co-chair and I have accomplished a lot in terms of leading our committee. We didn't have a lot of members but everyone worked very hard in terms of recruiting Expo contributors. I helped to run meetings, delegate tasks, organize our roster, and give progress reports to the FIUTS Student Board.

Being a co-chair for CulturalFest Expo showed me how much impact my leadership has on the community around me. We were able to bring together an event that highlighted so many diverse cultures, promoting inclusivity in the UW and Seattle communities. I've also shown myself how much I really care about diversity, as well as how there is still so much to learn about the world I live in. I think that opening up my perspective and continuing to value inclusivity are essential to my career after college, regardless of the exact path I pursue.

I plan to continue being involved with FIUTS since my interest in cross-cultural connections is something that I can pursue through opportunities like these. I am still seeing how it will fit into my schedule, but the part of me that cares so deeply about global understanding and inclusivity will make it very hard not to stay involved. Returning to this position next year would also allow me to make improvements from this year.
All in all, I found this co-chair position to be extremely rewarding both in terms of my values and in terms of strengthening my leadership skills.