As part of the celebration of International Education Week at Baruch College, students, faculty and staff participated in the “International Trivia & Dumpling Day Challenge” on Nov. 19.

Baruch’s Conversations Partners Program collaborated
with the International Student Service Center to make the event possible.

The goal of the event was “to bring together students, staff and faculty in a celebration of culture and customs and traditions and learning more about international education in part for international education week,” said
Elizabeth Minei, who instructed participants throughout the event.

“This is a growing event that really is showcasing the diversity at Baruch and highlighting the people so it’s really, really about the people,” said Minei after realizing there had been 175 attendees present at the event.

As part of the learning process, attendees formed around thirty teams and participated in a trivia-style competition. 

Each group was given a ballot on which they had to write down their answers to each question. 

As they answered each question, they brought their ballots to their assigned judges. 

Multiple choice questions included questions like, “Which hand gesture is considered highly offensive in Bangladesh?” — the answer to which was the thumbs-up sign — and, “What do the letters in the airline name Qantas stand for?” — the correct answer being Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.

There was also a lightning round in which participants were allotted one minute to name as many of the twelve countries in South America as they could. 

The team with the most points after answering all twenty questions at the end won. 

The prize was a $10 Amazon gift card for each student on the winning team, which was “Wrong Questions.” The faculty and staff team that won was “True Scholars.”

As the name suggests, refreshments served included dumpling-style foods from different cultures, such as samosas, Chinese dumplings, Japanese gyoza and Latin American empanadas.

“My favorite part about the event had to be trying out the different ‘dumplings’ from around the world! It was a really great way to experience a wide array of ethnic foods at one event,” said Rohit Mathew.

The trivia challenge tied into the week’s celebrations as “the entire event was based around questions that support cultures from all over the globe,” said Minei. 

“We tried to represent every continent, pull from customs, music, food, holidays and so we really sort of did a sampling that could inform participants of areas of cultures they may never have heard of,” she said.

International Education Week is a nationwide celebration across higher education institutions revolving around the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide.

This week “is a time to celebrate and recognize the diversity that Baruch College students represent, it’s a time to reflect on the different places we’ve come from  and how we can all come together and appreciate the differences and the similarities we share,” said Sitara Sawh, the president of the Conversations Partners Program who acted as a judge during the competition.

Other events during the week included “International Movie Night” and “Say my Name: Pronunciation of Chinese Names and Phrase Workshop.”