Multicultural Festival Celebrated Across Multiple DCCC Campuses

By Viviana Pruett-Saratan

Staff Writer

On Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, the Office of Campus Engagement held its 31st annual Multicultural Festival where students tasted dishes from around the world while listening to Andes Folk and traditional Latin band Eco Del Sur. The festivities continued at both the Pennocks Bridge Center and the Upper Darby Center on Nov. 18 and at the Downingtown Campus on Nov. 20, where the Campus Engagement Office hosted similar celebrations.

Photography by Charlie McFlea

Allyson Gleason, director of Campus Engagement, organized the main festival by asking clubs to participate in the event. Each club provided an idea for the country they wanted to represent and recipes for the dishes they would like to serve. Gleason then collaborated with the school’s cafeteria staff to choose one dish per club.

The first-ever Multicultural Festival at DCCC, held in 1994, was attributed to former reading professor Dianne Shames, who passed away in 2020. Gleason said the details of how the festival started are “murky,” but the school has been carrying the tradition ever since. The school recognizes how diverse the student body is and uses the festival to focus on student representation.

“[The festival] allows students to showcase their culture,” Gleason said.

Nine clubs participated in the event by showcasing a country of their choice. Each table had one dish representing their country along with decorations, posters, and their country flag. As students walked through, they received a sample-sized portion of each dish from club members, courtesy of the kitchen staff. Members of PTK dressed in traditional Bangladeshi clothing while serving a rice dish. Other clubs, like The New Media Lab, had mandarin oranges and other symbolic items representing Chinese culture.

The celebrations at the branch campuses were held over two days. The event in the Upper Darby Center’s student lounge, as well as the festival at the Downingtown Campus, offered free food, including hummus with pita and veggies, coconut pudding, and caprese salad. Students enjoyed the food and accompanying music in between classes.

On the Marple Campus, the LatinX Student Association had an activity where participants could color butterflies with bright markers. Students could then tape them to a large whiteboard with “Delaware County Community College” written in bold letters and write their language underneath their colored butterflies. Angie Perez, president of the LatinX Student Association, explained that butterflies represent freedom in Mexico.

“It is a way to show support during uncertain times,” she said, referring to the current immigration policies in the U.S.

Eco Del Sur played throughout the festival, sharing Andes folk and traditional Latin American music. Musicians Jorge Gomez, Enrique Garcia, and Nicholas Lombardo serenaded the students with traditional Inca instruments. Gomez was happy to show students the instruments and explain how they were traditionally made. He demonstrated the Kena (an Incan flute made of wood or bone), the Zampoña (an Andean panpipe), and the Charango (a string instrument traditionally made with the shell of an armadillo, but this one was made of wood).