The University of Connecticut’s Indian Student Association held a collaborative mixer with the Hindu Student Organization on Sept. 14. The event, which took place on the Student Union Terrace, featured 15 different South Asian cultural clubs.
Cultural organizations are an essential part of the community at the University of Connecticut. Within these cultural organizations, there is often a lot of focus towards the artistic expression of culture. The South Asian community has several organizations and clubs that cultivate that cultural expression. The mixer featured a number of presentations and performances by the different dance teams, singing groups and student support organizations.
“One of the best things about being part of a brown [organization] at UConn is the fact that we collaborate with the other groups,” Hansuja Chaurasia, co-president of the ISA, said. “This entire event is a collaboration with HSO and it’s a great opportunity to meet and work with new people.” Chaurasia is a fifth-semester Allied Health Sciences student.
The mixer began with a social period where students got the opportunity to walk around and meet with each club to see what they are interested in. After the social period, they began performances. The event featured performances from UConn’s competitive dance teams like Surya, ThundeRaas, Bhangra and Jhalak.
This week will wrap up recruitment for each of these teams. ThundeRaas finished their tryouts on Monday, Sept. 15, and Surya’s second tryout is the following day from 8:30 to 11 p.m. in the Information Technology Engineering building.
“Because we’re a competitive team, we do have a high commitment,” co-captain of UConn Surya Vidhi Parekh said. “However, that just helps us grow our time management skills. We give about 10 hours a week into [Surya], but it’s 100% worth it. I’ve met the best people through this team.”
The other organizations also make a high effort to lift each other up. “Particular with Surya and [UConn ThundeRaas], we sometimes do combined workshops and team events. Everyone is very inclusive, and we have such a great community from that,” Shiven Viroja, UConn ThundeRaas’s (UCTR) social chair said.
The mixer also featured South Asian singing organizations, such as Husky Hungama and UConn Sanskriti. Hungama is a South Asian fusion a capella group. They had a performance with a mashup of “Apple Pie” by Lizzy McAlpine and “Zaalima” by Arijit Singh and Harshdeep Kaur. The lead vocalists in this song were fifth-semester student Inchara Gaddi and third-semester student Anjani Anamthoji.
UConn Sanskriti is UConn’s classical arts organization. The club is split into two parts: Sadhana for classical singing and Shakti for classical dance.
These clubs also provide a great sense of support and community regarding academics. “Having them as support beams when I was feeling stressed or overwhelmed really helped me overcome that,” Ved Bathula from UCTR said.
Beyond community from the dance organizations, the mixer also featured student support organizations, like the South Asian Women Empowerment Assocation (SAWEA), UConn Ascend, Hindu YUVA and the Telugu Student Association.
In an interview with UConn Ascend, President Simran Soni said, “We offer a lot of workshops, including resume building, LinkedIn workshops [and] interview prep.”
Vice-President Marina Syed added, “We also offer help getting internships, we personally got our internships through Ascend.”
“It sounds cliche, but joining HSO truly helped me find my community and my UConn family. That community isn’t just HSO, it’s all the orgs like ISA, Sanskriti, Bhangra, everyone truly supports and shows up for each other,” said Sreeja Terala, co-president of HSO.
Hindu Students Organization is accepting applications until Sept. 19 for Outreach Chair & Undergraduate Representative.
At the end of the mixer, ISA and HSO provided mango lassi, an Indian refreshment while sending out interest forms for the Hindu Prayer Room. HSO and Senator Tanya Sinha have been working to create a prayer space for Hindu students on the UConn Storrs campus.