AASA Educates Through Ethnic Desserts

On Wednesday, Sept. 29, the Rollins community celebrated the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. As part of the festivities, Rollins invited about 20 international students from Disney’s intern program to campus.

Hosted by the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) and the Asian American Student Association (AASA), the evening began with an invite only dinner at Ward Hall with an array of freshly cooked Chinese food, such as rice cakes, chow mein, glutinous rice balls and fried rice, among other traditional Chinese dishes.

Students from Rollins and Disney were eager to meet and greet one another and after just one hour of mingling over delicious and exotic food, they all were taking pictures, hugging and exchanging contacts. It was an environment where all students were quick to make friends.

The celebration opened up to the rest of the Rollins community when it moved to the Campus Center in the evening. As in previous years, many desserts from Southeast Asia were served, including Mooncakes, a token symbol of the festival, and halo-halo, a popular Filipino shaved ice and milk dessert served with an array of toppings. Those who stopped at the stand were not intimidated to try the foreign foods and were rewarded with a pleasant experience.

Besides the food, a big hit at the event was the stand where the Disney interns and Rollins students wrote people’s names in Chinese calligraphy. Hongjin Du ‘14 was exceptionally enthusiastic, holding up the sign, “Get your Chinese name here!!”

Jon Perry ’14 was excited to meet people and try foods at the stand. He says that Rollins is doing “a really good job at exposing students to global citizenship” and that the inter national cuisines and the Global Peace Festival are great methods to improve awareness of global cultures and issues.

Stu Anderson ‘14 enjoyed “making more international friends” during high school, and is glad that Rollins is “help[ing] gain that back.” Anderson added that he hopes to see Rollins do more to “integrate multiculturalism with [the] American student populous.”