by Eylül Begüm Sağlam, PhD student in Political Science and a 2023-24 Research Assistant at the European Union Center
This semester, the EU Center took part in another
Multicultural Night hosted by South Side Elementary School on March 6th, 2023
(from 5:30pm to 7pm). The event served as a venue for familiarizing students
with different countries, regions, and cultural traditions. Activities included
local food tastings and experiencing vernacular languages of countries, and
there were also tables on the contributions of various cultures to humanity
(e.g., inventions).
The Multicultural Night started with students’ as well as
their families’ exploration of different cultural tables and continued with
more interactive activities which enabled participants to witness the
respective culture and traditions. These activities included dancing and children’s
games.
Area studies centers from the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign participated in the event. Research assistant Eylul Begum
Saglam represented the EU Center and led the students in a “Guessing the Flag”
game, since it proved quite popular at Leal Elementary School’s Multicultural
Night. The game included the following European countries (including the EU
member states, EEA countries, candidate countries and potential candidates): Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Iceland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands,
North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Serbia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine. Students matched the flag that they chose with that
of country names that came to their minds.