IGO Hosts Intercultural Cookout

Indiana Wesleyan University’s International Global Office (IGO) celebrated diversity by hosting a cookout for students Aug 30.
“And it’s just like our kickoff to, like, invite people to come up to the lounge, and just kind of like celebrating diversity on campus,” said Camryn Bobiak, the assistant director of multicultural programming.
Bobiak oversees the student workers and plans events with multicultural programming.
The goal of the cookout was to create a space for students at IWU who come from different backgrounds to talk and get to know each other.
“Get people from all the diversity at IWU just to come here, just to talk with each other, get to know each other, and just create fun games and, yeah, just create a sense of belonging for everyone on campus,” said Cole Bradburn, a student ambassador for IGO.
Bradburn is in charge of pursuing and advocating for minority students by putting on events.
IGO events serve as a reminder that IWU does care about their international students, as some schools do not have organizations like IGO on their campus.
“There’s parties, but not diverse? No, it’s just all the same people and clothes… it’s like, copy and paste. This, though, this is crazy. You see people from all around the world,” said Kai Ellis.
Ellis is a student at the University of Kentucky and was invited to the cookout by a friend/student from IWU.
The cookout had many activities for students including spike ball, cornhole, music to dance, a barber shop and a nail art station .
During the cookout the temperature was 91 degrees, but it did not matter as students lined up for food and games while smiling and laughing.

“So far, it’s really hot out, but we have a lot of water and good vibes. Music is pumping. So fun,” said Bobiak.
IGO has a lot of events planned for the year but one of the more exciting events is the grand opening of the barber shop on the IWU campus.
“So it’s gonna be (open) in the next couple weeks. We don’t have an exact date yet, but we’re gonna have, like, food giveaways and then people can get free haircuts,” said Bobiak.
Haircuts will be free on opening day only and then students will have to pay for haircuts afterwards as prices will vary.