On Thursday, Creighton’s Inter Residence Hall Government (IRHG), and several other campus multi-cultural clubs, hosted the program DiversiTea in the Skutt Student Center. This event showcased several different cultures through their tea.
In conjunction with IRHG, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Multicultural Advisory Council, African Student Association, Asian Student Association, CU African American Student Association, CU Latino Student Association, Indian Cultural Society, and Native American Association coordinated the event.
“DiversiTea was a program that in a lot of ways began being planned last spring,” said Mariah Borek, Arts & Sciences sophomore and Diversity and Leadership Committee Chair of IRHG. The IRHG executive team was interested in doing a program in partnership with the different multi-cultural organizations on campus, and so they connected with the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
IRHG heard about the DiversiTea idea at it’s summer conference and presented it to the Multicultural Advisory Council in hopes that a member of each club would present on their culture’s tea.
“The representatives loved the idea and were eager to participate in the program,” Borek said. “On the day of DiversiTea, each organization had their own table in Skutt decorated with cultural artifacts from their respective cultures.”
Featured teas included sweet tea from the U.S., chai tea from India, green tea from Asia, black tea from Afghanistan, mate tea from South America and several more.
Attendees drew a trivia question from a bowl on the greeting table where the event began and then went from table to table searching for the answer. Each question was centered on a type of tea and its culture, such as how it was made, to whom it was served, and what healing properties and benefits it had, if any.
Each table had a Powerpoint with facts about that specific tea. Students visiting the tables could sample the tea, hand-brewed by members, and search their slides for the answer or ask the members at the tables.
“IRHG wanted students to search for an answer to a cultural question in order to begin dialogues and create learning opportunities at each table,” Borek said. “These questions sparked deeper conversations between the attending students and organizations.”
Once students found the correct answer, they brought it back to the greeting table at the entrance to collect their prize which was a “to-go-cup” full of their favorite tea from the event.
“Overall, the student feedback was very positive, with many students talking about how much they enjoyed the program as they left,” Borek said. “IRHG was happy to collaborate with the different multicultural organizations and will definitely consider doing DiversiTea again next year.”