![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/52972916811_1526ff0fab_o-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>While Pankowsky is employed by Camosun, the rest of the crew that brings the showcase to life are all students\u2014including Bachani, the event coordinator. For Bachani, the production means more than just extracurricular credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was about building connections,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was about having students share their cultures, their talents, giving them a space to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a student, Bachani\u2019s very familiar with the limited time the performers have for non-academic projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m surprised by their resilience and commitment, because some students are parents, they have other responsibilities,\u201d says Bachani. \u201cThey work a lot. They\u2019re taking three, five courses, all of them full time-students, [they\u2019re also] working, and then having this commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the time commitment is worth it, because of what the showcase does to bring students together. Pankowsky has repeatedly witnessed the friendships that are forged through the sharing of culture.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The students] have built stronger connections and stronger networks,\u201d says Pankowsky. \u201cI\u2019ve heard them saying they met new people, new friends, from different programs, because sometimes if you\u2019re in a cohort, you only interact with your cohort for two years or one year. And then when you get a chance to be part of the Cultural Showcase, you meet people from other countries, other cultures, other programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friendship isn\u2019t the only reason the event\u2014which this year is in honour of recently retired Camosun International counsellor Brian Herron, who started the event in 2007\u2014is important. Students have sincerely put their hearts into their performances because, as the saying goes, home is where the heart is.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat fascinates me about this event is how students really honour their roots and they honour their backgrounds where they come from,\u201d says Pankowsky. \u201cI feel like this is a night where they can symbolically bring their families with them, bring them to Canada… I had this lovely student last year from India, it took her, I don\u2019t know, three, four hours to get her makeup done, and wearing her clothes and doing her hair. She shared that this is something she used to do with her mom back in India\u2026 We really got very emotional about this, because she felt like she was going to be on stage with her mom, as she used to do it in her home country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The showcase will be broadcast live on Camosun International\u2019s YouTube channel, so even students far from home can share the performance with their families. Bachani is busy overseeing finishing touches to the show, and is excited to see everyone\u2019s hard work paying off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love just seeing their connection to who they are and where they come from,\u201d says Bachani. \u201cI think that\u2019s really important\u2026 Performers are really practicing their hardest and hosts are putting [in] their soul and their time. So this will be a very special night, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cultural Showcase will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday, March 21 in the Gibson Auditorium at Camosun\u2019s Lansdowne campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This month, Camosun International will host its annual Cultural Showcase. Featuring performances from domestic and international students, the showcase aims to honour students\u2019 backgrounds and highlight the joy that comes from celebrating diversity. Now in its 15th year, event organizers Jayanti Bachani and Dana Pankowsky are looking forward to shaking things up. Pankowsky, a Camosun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-march-6-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25155,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25153\/revisions\/25155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}