Every single person grows up with different traditions, beliefs, and even foods; that is the culture that they grow up in. There are nearly 200 different countries around the world and each one has its own unique customs and people that make it completely different and interesting. The problem is experiencing all these different cultures and being able to embrace them in a positive and accurate way. As of this semester that problem is being solved for students on campus thanks to Culture club.

Culture club endeavors to encourage its members to branch out and try new things, and to meet new people all in the hopes that they can learn to appreciate the unique richness that each country possesses. It is a place for students to educate themselves so that they are equipped with the knowledge that allows them to accept people for their differences.

“It’s about educating people about the different backgrounds and places that other students grow up in. Especially in 2019, it’s good to learn to respect people’s culture especially because [in the] media [people] either greatly disrespect or obsess over them so I think it’s good to get the word out and help do away with some of that negativity,” said Kaley Schmidt, sophomore and president of Culture club.

Each week Culture club hosts a different guest speaker to come in and talk about their customs. For their first guest they hosted a parent who came in to talk about South Korean life. She  spent time going over the language, special holidays, and even brought in food and clothing for the students to see and enjoy.

“They talk about their home country and it’s so different from the American lifestyle here. So many people don’t know more than what they personally experience and about all these traditions that people care so much about. The culture here isn’t it; there’s so much more out there that people have no clue about,” said Hannah Magick, sophomore.

The club started as a way to educate the students but it also began as a way to benefit people from other places around the world through charity and fundraising. In this way, students here can learn about places around the world while they lend their help to people in need.

“I was in Africa this summer because my mom is from West Africa and we were talking about schooling. I found out that schooling for one kid for one year is around $200 here but there it’s around $500. I realized that it would be so easy to start a club to start supporting people in Africa and getting them to school so that’s how that started; culture just came with it,” Schmidt said.