The International Student Resource Centre is a student-run resource centre dedicated to helping international students get on their feet and get to know each other here at Memorial. The primary purpose of this group is to hold events where international students can do those aforementioned things.
Their biggest event by far is the Multicultural Show, an annual talent show held to bring in hundreds of audience members and a ton of performers from all across the world. This year, the show is set to be held at the Holy Heart Theatre on the 5th of March.
We sat down with the president of the ISC, Nethmini Hapuarachchige, to talk about the resource centre and how it goes about creating these huge events.
MUSE: So, what does the ISC do?
NETHMINI: In the fall semester, we usually have a welcome event. So this past Fall, we had a movie night and a hike and bonfire up to Mt. Scio. We also have the International Student Recognition Awards (ISRA), which are scholarship awards given in eleven categories. And then there is the Multicultural Show.
MUSE: How many people usually attend the show?
NETHMINI: 350, 400, 450, roughly that manyt. But last year we had 350 to 400. That’s excluding all the performers, committee members, and volunteers.
MUSE: So how do you prepare for the show?
NETHMINI: The show is usually focused mostly on MUN students and bringing them together. Basically providing a platform for international students to share their talents and their culture. We encourage the use of different languages and different traditional outfits but this year we kind of extended out more to the public. In past years, we’ve had non-students perform as well but this year we kind of opened it up even more. We have young kids performing too. There are 18 performances, excluding a fashion show, lined up for the event. We held two rounds of auditions at MUN, one in January and one in February.
MUSE: What kind of performances are presented?
NETHMINI: There’s a mixture between singing, dancing and instruments.
MUSE: What’s your favourite part about volunteering with the ISC?
NETHMINI: I guess finding ways to get international students involved and creating opportunities for them. There’s less opportunities for us as International students to share either our talents or our cultures and be inclusive and whatnot, and we just want to bring everyone together, so we find ways as best as we can. The multicultural show is my favourite I’d say, but it’s the most stressful as well. It takes up all of our time but no complaints.
The multicultural show is on March 5th from 7:15 to 10:15 with twelve dollar ticket prices, available through holyhearttheatre.com or the box office. For more details on the event, please visit the event page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/506387729884660/