Baklava, burritos and borsch

Student cultural clubs on campus

Arab Club

One of the longest-standing traditions at Franklin – Arab Night – is fondly remembered by many alumni and set the standard for cultural nights at the College. The Arab Club has regularly sponsored a cultural evening for all things Arabic for many years and the tradition is still going strong.

“A lot of people come for the food,” says Rinad Khudair ’09, treasurer of the club last year. And the reputation of Arab Night for its cuisine is well-deserved. Every year the club members work diligently to exceed students’ expectations of delicious food. The club members make sure they serve delicacies from different Arabic regions. “We make Lebanese appetizers, Palestinian and Egyptian dishes and Gulf-area specialties,” says Fatima Adwan ’11, from Jordan, who has become the food guru of the club. The club also makes several vegetarian options in order  to cater to all tastes on campus. As many of the ingredients and spices are hard to find in Lugano, students bring the items needed from their home countries when they return from summer or winter break.

To pull off a big event like Arab Night, the club divides its members into committees for things like decorations, advertising and food in order to make the workload manageable. Fatima is in charge of the food committee, which is responsible for  grocery shopping, food preparation and cooking. Although she has her hands full organizing and readying the numerous and plentiful culinary creations that the club serves up fresh, the payoff is another successful evening of satisfying students’ cravings for Arabic food.

The popularity of the food during Arab Night has led to the idea of cooking lessons, which Fatima hopes to offer on a regular basis during the semester to allow students the chance to learn how to make the dishes themselves.

The club also participates in International Food Night but the work is much less as it offers a menu which is pared down from the Arab Night extravaganza. The Arab Club members and Fatima can always count on students being ready and eager to gorge themselves as is traditional at a true Arab feast.

Texas Club

When Jacob Tally ’04 started the Texas Club in the fall of 2002, he “had no idea what we would do or what it would become. I just told people that, like Texas, the club would be bigger and better than anything else they’d ever seen. To my surprise, we had about 30 people sign up.”

Of those, roughly 30, only about half, were from Texas and about 10 were not even from the United States. Since Jacob had started the club after joking with friends about the high number of incoming Texans that year during Orientation, he decided to start small and only host one event – Texas Night.

The first school-wide Texas Night was a huge success. “The night of the event, we had BBQ chicken, hamburgers, margaritas, played country music and taught people to line dance,” says Jacob. “I think we sold about 90 tickets and had just about the whole club show up to help setup and run things.”

During the two years that Jacob headed the Texas Club at Franklin, it hosted a school-wide Texas Night only once a year, but enthusiastic club members continued and expanded the club after he graduated. The club started to participate in International Food Night and to sponsor dance lessons before the big event and of course continued to host the yearly Texas Night, which has become one of the biggest cultural events on campus.

Eight years later, the Texas Club is still going strong, attracting the same diverse group of Texans and non-Texans alike. “We strive to promote the spirit of Texas, knowledge of Texas and to spread hospitality around campus,” says Christian Noble ’09, the club president in the fall of 2009. “Our goals are to be both friendly and competitive with the other clubs, to promote Texas pride around campus and to make all people feel welcome.”

The club has become one of the largest on campus and continues to look for new ideas for events and Texas Night themes. Jacob, who was born and raised in Dallas and now works in corporate finance in Texas for an international company, is thrilled that the club has continued and is still going strong. “As founder and president that first year, I felt as though my only role was making sure the club did something so that I could justify its existence,” says Jacob. To his surprise the success and dedication of the club has made it a regular part of the Franklin community, and students for years to come will be able to enjoy cornbread, sweet tea and a small piece of Texas in Switzerland.

Russian Club

After a night spent chopping up more onions than she ever had before in her life—for the Latin Club International Food Night entry that won first place that year—Tatiana Shevchenko ’09 began talking with her friend Maria Demidova ’09 about starting a cultural club to involve the many Russian and Eastern European students on campus. Just in their own residence, Girasole, there were at least five students of that cultural background and more elsewhere on campus. 

“We thought Russians, Russian speakers and Eastern Europeans might be interested in participating,” says Tatiana, who is originally from Chisinau, Moldova, and who moved to the United States when she was young. “We wanted to represent Russia and former Soviet states at school events.”

So, along with Maria and Roxana Cazacu ’09, Tatiana formed the Russian Club in 2007 with the goal of winning the International Food Night prize and developing recognition for Russian culture. While they didn’t win the competition, they did address stereotypes through small skits that included a ballerina dancing to Tchaikovsky joined by a drunken bear with a bottle of vodka as well as an imitation of a Russian rap video.

“We hoped to eliminate stereotypes while promoting an understanding of Russian culture and people,” says Tatiana. “I believe that this is important for everyone at Franklin as well as for anyone who is interested in being active in the international community. Russia is a great world power and an important actor on the world stage. The prevailing Cold War perception of it needs to be altered.”

Now in its third year, the Russian Club has continued to hold and participate in several events on campus every year including its own cultural experience—Russian Night. After a brief name change to the Eastern European Club last year, the club has returned to its original Russian Club name and continues to attract many different students.

“While the original group involved in the Russian Club was mostly Russian, this started to change,” says Tatiana. “Many Americans and Europeans joined the club and became integral members of it, and the club closely cooperated with members of the Arab Club. The fact that people are interested, participating and reaching out, is unmistakably a sign of success. My hope for the club is that it will continue to grow and develop in the years to come while attracting new members and becoming a legacy on campus.”

Through the hard work of the three founding students and other members, the Russian Club, now led by Daria Lyubina ’10, has accomplished a lot in its brief number of years on campus. Everyone involved in the club wanted to see it become a regular part of campus life, and their dedication contributed to successful activities and a good, solid start.

“It is hard to forget the long nights before major events when the members of the Russian Club would get together in Girasole to cook, bake, boil and broil while rehearsing dances, songs and skits—this sense of community is one of my best memories of Franklin,” says Tatiana.

For more photos, see our Photo Gallery .

May 2010