On December 16th, the Black Student Union, German Club, Speech and Debate, and several other clubs came together to celebrate the holiday season in Cafe 321. Cadence Golden, a member of the Black Student Union’s executive team, organized the event, which aimed to recognize the various holidays that the culture of each club celebrates and promote the organizations in attendance. Cafe 321 was decked out with festive decorations, lights, and platters of food ranging from Doritos to donuts, and students listened to festive music and played holiday-related games throughout the course of the event.

Rushi Kulkarni, the Extemporaneous Speech Captain for Speech and Debate, thoroughly enjoyed not only the event itself, but the aims of it as well: “I think the atmosphere was amazing. A whole bunch of clubs coming together, I really like the unity there.” He went on to emphasize the importance of multicultural club collaboration, stating that he thought the fact “that so many different cultures can come together is the point of multicultural clubs as a whole” and that “it was the best thing” about the event. It was, indeed, incredibly special to see so many students come to support the various cultural clubs that make up USC’s student organization base and gain exposure to the goals of said organizations as well.

Cephus Moore, a Spanish and French teacher, and BSU faculty sponsor shared Kulkarni’s view regarding the collaborative nature of the event, recounting that he thought “it was neat to see everyone come together and be so enthusiastic and supportive.” He also shared insight on the organization of the event, sharing that he was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the turnout, as advertising was not terribly robust, and was even more impressed with the student organization of the event: “It was all student-organized. It was nice to see students step up and be leaders all by themselves.” Several faculty members were in attendance at the event, and they all recounted similar views, expressing their appreciation of the students’ organizational initiative. 

Cadence Golden, the primary organizer of the multicultural holiday party, shared that there were some hiccups she encountered leading up to the event: “A lot of people did not respond to my emails, so I did not know how much stuff to bring.” However, similar to Mr. Moore, she was very pleased with the number of students who attended and said that in the future, slightly earlier planning would undoubtedly be helpful in making an already relatively successful event even more effective. 

While there were some last-minute aspects to the holiday celebration, overall, the event provided an excellent promotional opportunity for multicultural clubs and represented a level of cross-club unity that truly demonstrates the diverse and collaborative spirit of Upper St. Clair club leade