Have you ever thought to yourself, “I would love to be home, but home is too far and can’t come to me?” Naturally, you bring home to you. But with home, there’s a sense of community tied to it. That’s why I clean the house or my room with some nice Congolese music—because there’s a connection between music and cleaning. It feels like home in a foreign land.
This is a story that’s familiar to many of us. We spend our formative years in places we call home, surrounded by cultures that are integral to us. And if not, we curate the spaces that allow us to recreate that feeling. That’s what the International Festival was all about.
It was an opportunity for both international and non-international students, faculty, and staff to feel at home without being home, to showcase their roots with the people they chose. They shared the sounds that felt like home, the complexities, the colors, the food, and the practices. And because we are nationally divided, we showcased the most symbolic geographical markers: flags. It was also a time for the Lewisburg community to learn and an opportunity to support local businesses.
— Holiness Kerandi ‘26