Passport to Culture: Around the World in Four Hours

Everything is possible.

Traveling around the world in four hours was this years theme of Passport to Culture, an annual cultural event sponsored by Anthropology Club held on Tuesday, in Jackson Center.

“Passport to Culture is a celebration of the international groups who study at EvCC, providing an opportunity for them to broadcast their cultures,” said Elke Dinter, who teaches America in the World and was one of the coordinators for the event.

Saravine Naitingale, an EvCC running start student 

from Indonesia, wear traditional clothing 

from Central Kalimantan to represent her country.

Within four hours, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. EvCC students were challenged to complete their passport paper by collecting stamps from different countries and clubs to win prizes, meanwhile they were entertained by a performance from a local musician.


“It’s a celebration of internationality at EvCC and it’s participated by around 20 countries this year,” Dinter said. “The event started slowly at the beginning but then it turned out really good. People came, had fun, and the musicians were excellent.”

Dinter added that year to year Passport to Culture events always invite a cultural musician to celebrate the event. This year, there were two groups, one played Indian music and the second group played Afro-Peru music, which told the story of slaves that were trapped in Peru.

Tim Williams, of Anthropology Club, explained to a student
about the club activities. Anthropology Club has sponsored
Passport to Culture for six years now.

Tim Williams, Public Relation Officer of Anthropology Club, said he has been involved with Passport to Culture for three years, and this year Anthropology Club sponsored the event.

“Our motto is experiencing cultures together, that’s why we sponsored this event,” Williams said. “What we like about Passport to Culture is that there’s a door prize, people come together and have fun and get to know about their culture.”

According to Williams, Passport to Culture is also an event where EvCC clubs join together and talk about what’s happening around the world. It is a good place to promote their clubs to be recognized on campus.

“This is a very great event, I see many students come happy and also they really want to know what’s going on on campus so I think that’s great, it’s really bringing us together at school,” Williams said. “We should have more events like this that bring the school together. And we get to know each other.”

Mieshkah Fortuin, an International student from
 South Africa, shows the poster she made to
show students more about South Africa.

“It’s a very interesting event and it’s very special to me because when I heard about it, I just wanted to get involved and participate, that’s why I came and wear thede traditional clothes from Central Kalimantan,” said Saravine Naitingale, a Running Start student from Jakarta, Indonesia.

Naitingale added that she learned about German and Russian cultures and she just learned that EvCC has a project in Costa Rica for the summer. In her opinion, Passport to culture is a very good event that gathers almost all the nationalities of EvCC students.

Mieshkah Fortuin, an accounting student from South Africa, said her reason to participate at Passport to Culture is to represent her country and to reduce the stigma about South Africa so that more people will choose South Africa as their next destination.

“I think this event is very insightful where you can learn because there are varieties of country displaying their culture,” Fortuin said. “It’s interesting to know about different cultures, shocking sometimes but very interesting to learn on any good knowledge.”



Story by Ratna Wahyuningsih