By: Alina Buzgar, News Editor
Regional Nights vividly represent the best of Thunderbird in a colorful explosion of culture, energy, and plenty of fun. It’s the time and place where the showstoppers are the ladies and men wearing elegant traditional dresses, when student volunteers work tirelessly to set the scene for a magical night and T-Birds take the stage to showcase the world region by region through song and dance and theatrical performance.
Photo Courtesy of Buzgar
Jonaki Moitra (MSGM ’15, India) is the events planning chair. That means that she will drive all the regional nights at Thunderbird in the Spring of 2015! We sat down with her to learn what’s in store for us.
What can we expect from Regional Nights?
Indian Subcontinent Cultural Club (ISCC) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) present the first Regional Night on February 21. Look out for some delicious Indian and Middle Eastern food like shawarma, kebabs and Indian “Desi” Biryaani! This time we will also have regional drinks so do stop by to taste some!
Are there any other special events planned?
We will feature a regional booth that will showcase the ethnicity of each country representing the celebrated region. You can pose and use the props for the photo booth here. There are other attractions like hookah and henna. You can get also have your names written in the regional languages.
What do you want to achieve?
We aim to get all T-Birds as close as possible to the cultures of their peers and want to make it a memorable experience. Those who want to participate in the Regional performances please do reach out to me. There will be some classic Middle Eastern drama and dance and energetic Indian Bollywood performances to look out for. Watch out for the theme to be unveiled this Monday, February 16, and some cool facts on these countries.
Marissa Burkett (MBA ’15, U.S.), the Sustainability Chair, tells us that her team will try to make this the first sustainable regional night. There will be plenty of recycling bins and a team of volunteers to ensure that as much as possible gets recycled throughout the event. “This is part of our bigger goal to make all events on campus sustainable,” says Marissa.
After the ISCC and MENA regional night on February 21 there will be two more regional nights this spring; one on March 28 and one on April 25.
Reach out to Jonaki at jonaki.moitra@global.t-bird.edu with any queries about the current events being held at Thunderbird and about the Regional Nights.