Melissa Lopez
Contributing Writer
he African Students Association (ASA) held their third annual African dinner Sat., April 5, in Shultz Banquet Hall. Allegheny students, alumni and professors gathered to eat and learn about traditional African culture as well as gather with students from different countries in Africa to learn about their culture.
ASA was put together three years ago with the goal to help educate and inform students about the African culture.
“The African Students Association was formed by African students to bring awareness of the culture at Allegheny as well to the Meadville community,” Hana Falein, ‘14, said.
She added that the focus is to educate students on the positive elements of the African continent and let students know how these African students live back home.
“Most of us were born in Africa and it’s a very diverse place and even though we all identify as Africans, we come from completely different parts of the continent. We have students coming for Ethiopoa, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, and Egypt and much more countries,” Falein said.
Along with traditional food, trivia questions were part of the learning experience at the dinner and prices were given away. One of the prizes was bracelets that Stephan Onyeiwu, the academic advisor for ASA and a professor in the economics department, brought back from his recent trip to Africa.
Onyeiwu discussed Combination 2020 during the dinner, which is a set of goals that Allegheny College has set by the year 2020. One of the goals is to internationalize the campus.
“This gathering is part of the process, it is contributing to the strategic goal,” Onyeiwu said.
The African Dinner is one of the opportunities for students at Allegheny College to learn about their peers’ cultures. Other cultures are represented on campus, for example the Asian and Asian American Association, Union Latina, Association of Advancement Black Culture and Japanese Club. These groups form for students to interact and experience new cultures.
Events like the African dinner educate other students on campus and students can experience eating cultural foods. Traditional African dishes such as meat sambosa, fried plantains, jallof spaghetti and deserts were served at the dinner.
“The dinner was delicious. Everything was well cooked and they planned the event nicely to the point where they had lots of food for their guests,” Halie Gary, ’17, said.
For those interested in joining ASA, they welcome everyone on campus to join. The group meets every other week in Quigley Hall room 201 at 7 p.m. If interested in joining ASA, email Hana Falein ([email protected]).
