As a campus with an international community, Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) provides a place for people from various cultural backgrounds to get together through an international student community called International of Community Students (ICS). Currently, the international students of UPH from came from 20 countries including Korea, Myanmar, Brazil, Japan, Philippines, Mongolia, and many more. Each year, this community held ‘Cultural Week’ to introduce the cultural heritage of these international students. For its fifth ‘Cultural Week’, ICS chose the theme ‘Celebration Wonders’ for their annual event, and held the event on September 23-28, 2019, at the UPH Campus, Lippo Village.

Phoebe Hartono, a student of UPH International Relation (2017), as the Head Committee of Cultural Week 2019, explained that this year’s Cultural Week main event will be the Cultural Festivals from four different countries, including Holi Festival from India, Rio Festival from Brazil, The Carnival of Venice from Italy, and Songkran Water Festival from Thailand. These four festivals are major events in its respective country which always attracts tourists all over the world.

The concept of this year’s Cultural Week, with the theme ‘Celebration Wonders’, was held with a series of events that involves local and international students. The purpose was no other than to bring students together and to build a respectful environment in a multicultural space.

“For this year’s Cultural Week, we held a Cultural Parade which has not been done in the previous years. Cultural Parade itself is a fashion show and flag parade that took place in UPH garden, filled with models wearing special-themed costumes and a parade of flags from various countries. Even with its celebratory concept, we also have informative events which were delivered through Exhibition Booths. Through these booths, we hoped that students are able to gain various information about cultural diversity which becomes the highlight of our festival. This exhibition was also equipped with interactive games,” Phoebe stated.

Phoebe explained that Cultural Week 2019 was closed with a splendid closing event in Summarecon Mall Serpong (SMS) on September 28, 2019. Various performances from the Student Activity Unit (UKM) of UPH also enlivened the event including Hana Union, the dance performance from ITC students, and a performance from Abraham Ewaldo, a student of UPH Conservatory of Music as well as one of the finalists in The Voices Indonesia season 3.
Through this program, hopefully Indonesian and International students are able to increase their interaction with each other so that they may share and learn from their respective cultural differences, and thus expand their knowledge. (na)