The International Students Association hosted its annual banquet on April 1 in the Harper Ballroom.

The 29^th banquet, titled, “Without Borders We Shall Unite the World,” was filled with culture and music. Roughly eight performances were performed by international students and community members.

“We wanted a good representation of not just the countries represented by Creighton’s student body, but also from the students themselves,” said Jeffrey Wong, the president of ISA. “We’ve always got a great interest and showing from the student body and the professional performances were chosen simply to expand the spectrum of cultures represented.”

The banquet began at 5:30 p.m. with interfaith blessings from different cultures. Members from Israel, Vietnam, Pakistan, the Dominican Republic and Bangladesh each shared their blessings in different languages.

The Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, S.J.,  stood and thanked a few people in the audience who helped make this possible, including René Padilla, vice provost for global engagement.

After Hendrickson spoke, dinner was served outside the ballroom. The main entrée options were joloff chicken, lamb masala and five-spiced cod with kaffir lime, glaze and pineapple relish. The menu also included stewed beans with white rice, basmati rice with vegetables, shrimp rice and vegetable lo mein.

After dinner, students and Omaha community members performed.

“We had students from the African Students Association singing, a group of Indian girls did a dance based on ‘Bollywood,’ JayBeats A Cappella did some singing and so on,” said Stephanie Rodríguez, the vice-president for social affairs of ISA. “We also had a fashion show where some students dressed up in their typical dress and showed it off on stage.”

The performances lasted for two hours.

“It showed that Creighton values the traditions and values all international students bring with them from their respective countries,” said Hafza Naeem, an international Arts and Sciences student. “I really liked interacting with people from other countries.”

The preparation for the banquet started in October. ISA contacted organizations on campus that might be interested in sharing their culture. In addition, ISA got in touch with outside performers, such as the Lion Dancers, to represent the Chinese culture, and the Mariachis to perform traditional Mexican singing while dinner was served.