State Farm Hall was filled with laughter on September 29 during the International Student Organization’s caricature event.
At 7 p.m. everyone began welcoming attendees by introducing themselves. People then picked a random number that decided an ice breaker question and answered accordingly. After introductions, the drawing began.
Attendees were instructed to grab five pieces of paper, a writing utensil, and choose a seat. However, the people sitting across from each other were not permanent selections, since they would get the chance to rotate spots soon.
Next, the President of the club Bea Manlapaz ‘25, started a timer for five minutes. Each round, people would speed draw the person in front of them.
Manlapaz, a junior from the Philippines majoring in business and international global studies, commented on the purpose of the organization.
“The purpose is to create events that encourage people to express themselves, especially international students. We want to emphasize that everyone, regardless of where they are from, are welcome and free to interact with each other.”
The event included people from across the globe. The United States, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Japan, India, Venezuela, Mongolia and many other countries were represented.
In reference to the diverse turnout Manlapaz said “the international student community has been growing over the past few years and the club started with a very big class last year. Now, our community is growing bigger.”
Bigger in size and bigger in smiles; the event ended with people trying, and failing, to guess who the person presenting drew.
“Overall, it went well. I could see people were genuinely having fun, enjoying each other, and laughing. Everyone was really excited to show each other what they were doing. That’s the best part, seeing that people are happy from the event,” Manlapaz said.
The International Student Organization will host more events on campus this semester, so keep a lookout for events from this community.