The Spire

Amelia Ciarleglio ’27

Features Editor

On Friday February 23rd, Peace of Mind hosted the Night Market in the Loyola Ballroom from 5:00-8:00 PM. At this event, students “traveled around the world” by visiting booths and learned more about eight different student organizations. The decorations consisted of beautiful colored lanterns, shimmering twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling of the ballroom, as well as posters and tables for each of the groups. Over 100 students participated in the event, and it was a great display of Holy Cross’s multi–cultural community. The groups which participated in the event were the Black Student Union, Movimiento Estudiantil Progressive Action, Pinoys of Worcester, Caribbean African Student Assembly, Latin American Student Organization, PRIDE, Developing and Educating South Asian Ideologies, Advocating Student Interest in Asia, and the French Department. Each organization had a booth where members of the Holy Cross community could visit and even get a taste of some of the cuisine that the groups enjoy. 

The Around the World Night Market was a wonderful celebration of traditions and cultures from around the world. At the Night Market, there were two performances, one from Latinidad, the latin dance team, and the other from Kxplosion, the Korean-pop dance team. Both performances were beyond impressive, and evoked energy from the large crowd of students. The room was overflowing with people excited to see their friends’ performances and enjoy the goodies and fun activities that were prepared. It was exciting watching as everyone traveled from table to table and appreciated each other’s cultures and identities. After completing an activity at a table or trying a new cuisine, the students would have a “passport” signed by the students running the table. This passport documented the enriching journey from table to table. Some of the exciting activities included the BSU’s polaroid table display with Trivia and card games, MEPA’s Pirinola game, POW’s Banana Cue and trivia, CASA’s lesson on how to play dominos, PRIDE’s friendship bracelet making station, and Peace of Mind’s origami tutorials. Many students enjoyed the cuisine at the tables including ASIA’s egg rolls and jelly straws, DESI’s mango juice and chips, LASO’s Mexican and Brazilian candy, and MEPA’s Fruta Picada. Each of the student organizations put time and effort into their stations and it showed through the beautiful displays and the excitement of the students who attended. 

Overall, this event was made possible due to the hard work and dedication of the Peace of Mind e-board, including Lily Nguyen, Vedanth Natarajan, Bess Jiang, Maya Benet, and Berry Jiang, and Elia Fisher the co-chair. The Peace of Mind e-board spent months dedicated to preparing this wonderful event and coordinating a night in which all of the organizations could come together and create this atmosphere of appreciation. Caitlin McNeil, the Peace of Mind OSI liaison, also played an integral role in executing this event. It was a beautiful demonstration of Peace of Mind’s goal: to spread cultural awareness and appreciation on the Holy Cross campus.

Copy Edited by Will Donahue ’24