Hawkins is notable for having a very significant number of international students. Walking down the halls of the building in the evening, one can usually smell a number of different international foods that residents have prepared for their dinners. This program has become something of a tradition at Hawkins Hall, which allows residents to share their culture's food. This will be the first year that Young Hall was brought in to join them.

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In the early planning stages of the program, RAs spoke with several of their residents who were international students, asking if they would be interested in sharing some of the cuisine from their native countries. This was a very successful effort, with 8 residents volunteering to prepare dishes for the program.

Leading up to the program, fliers were posted a week in advance, with reminder fliers being posted on the day of the program. In obtaining the ingredients for the meals, Resident Assistants either accompanied residents to the store, or bought the ingredients from a shopping list given to them.

The evening of the program was very busy, with all RAs actively involved in the running of the program. Four RAs helped in the cooking and preparation of food, while the other three tended to the running of the program. The food offerings spanned many cultures, including Indian, German, Italian, French, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Middle-Eastern.

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This program was intended to show what foods from different cultures are like, and to give residents opportunity to cook and share them with one another. Another goal of the program was to provide residents with a friendly atmosphere to meet new people from the hall, and to facilitate conversations between people of different cultural groups who otherwise might never have spoken with one another.

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Food is such a univerally appreciated thing that this program was able to appeal to all the residents of Hawkins and Young Halls. It brought people of all different cultures together around tables to enjoy food from different cultures. This fostered all kinds of conversations taking place between residents, who took the opportunity to discuss the food and make comparisons to their own countries.

Many of these conversations moved beyond food, to discuss more global and cultural issues. A great deal of appreciation and understanding for different cultures came about as a result of this program.

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The program was very successful overall, with more than 70 people in attendance from Hawkins and Young. The event was run smoothly and efficiently. Though some of the dishes at the event ran out, there was enough food for everyone to serve themselves at least once. The RAs did a good job of splitting up the workload of this program, so that no individual RA was forced to carry most of the weight of the program.

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This is a great program idea for any residence hall with a fairly diverse population, and facilities suitable for cooking and serving food. For a residence hall with a more homogenous set of residents, one option would be to coordinate with various international and cultural clubs and centers on campus.

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