Shailey Wooldridge  

Aspiring journalist   

The Arkansas State University College of Agriculture hosted the third annual World Culture Day.  

Students and faculty brought dishes from their home country. Five students who brought a dish won a $200 scholarship.  

Megan Meese, associate dean’s assistant and coordinator of this event, said there are international students in the CoA from Ireland, Zimbabwe, India, Nepal, Brazil and Mexico.  

“We’re happy to have everyone here and share culture with a group of people who are not represented all the time,” said Meese. “Every year this event gets bigger and bigger.” 

The scholarship winners included Emily Peters, second year animal science major from Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Jennifer Hinojosa, first year plant and soil science graduate student from Augusta, Arkansas; Jimmy DuVall, second year plant and soil science thesis student from Bay, Arkansas; Pausuidaule Zeliang and Dylan Grant.  

Emily Peters said she is of Irish ancestry, so she brought a traditional shepherd’s pie. She said her favorite dish was Indian Samosas.  

“I really like this event because it showcases how diverse the College of Ag really is. We’re not just a place with traditional farming and kids, we have people of all kinds of different backgrounds, different ethnicities, and I love how this celebrates that,” Peters said.  

John Nowlin, assistant professor of geospatial technologies, said the twenty foot long and six-foot-wide room was packed with students and faculty. 

“I’m a lover of all things food,” Nowlin said. “I’m teaching a class this semester about regenerative agriculture with a lot of international students. We talked about food all the time in class. It’s fun for the students to be able to bring something they made, and we talk about food from their culture.”