We gathered around three long tables inside Georgetown University’s Hilltoss, a cup of chai in one hand and a paintbrush in the other, as a Googoosh song played from the speakers. With our hand-painted Halloween decorations and guest appearances from roommates and friends, Georgetown’s Iranian Cultural Society’s (ICS) Chai and Paint event was a hit. We had been planning it for weeks, and despite running into a few bumps along the way (our Turkish delight shop was sadly closed), it ended up bringing together students from different backgrounds and providing a fun break from studying for midterms.
Moments like these have helped me realize how cultural clubs enrich campus life in ways that ordinary classes and activities cannot. More of our students should explore Georgetown’s cultural clubs to connect with their heritage or simply to discover a new community.
My father’s family left Iran during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and moved to Atlanta. After he married my mother, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Southern girl, they moved back to her hometown of Phenix City, Ala., to raise their four children. From shared glasses of sweet tea and big plates of barbecue to cotillion classes emphasizing the importance of manners, I grew up fully immersed in Southern culture and loved it.
However, without my father’s family close by, I never learned more than a few words of Persian or ate more than the occasional Persian dish on holidays. I only experienced as much of the culture as visits with my grandparents in Atlanta every few months allowed. Additionally, in my 18 years of living in my hometown, I never once ran into another Iranian American. As I got older, I began to feel that I had missed out on part of my family’s heritage.
I was introduced to ICS before my first semester even began; eager to start reconnecting with my culture, I had been taking a Persian language class over the summer, and my professors introduced me to the president of ICS. I could not have been more excited to get involved.
In just my first few months at Georgetown, ICS has allowed me to reconnect with my heritage in ways that I never expected. I have met so many incredible people through the club and helped plan fun events that celebrate my culture. One of my favorite memories was during Family Weekend, when ICS members brought their families to have lunch together at Clyde’s in Georgetown. We ended up staying for hours, bonding over immigration stories, Persian culture and delicious food. Events like this one have given me a sense of community around my Persian identity that I haven’t had before.
Whether you join a club centered on your own heritage or explore a culture completely new to you, cultural organizations like ICS provide spaces for students to build friendships, connect with one another and enjoy traditions that they may not otherwise have come into contact with. They allow us to celebrate heritage, explore identity and learn from others in an informal way that connects us all, and embodies Georgetown’s Jesuit value of Community in Diversity.
Being welcomed into the Iranian Cultural Society has been a powerful reminder of what it means to connect to a cultural community — it doesn’t have to begin at birth, but can develop later in life through friendship, shared meals and language. I urge you to join one of Georgetown’s many different student-run cultural organizations during your time here. When we contribute to Georgetown’s rich cultural diversity through these groups, we help create a more connected and inclusive campus.
Ava Valadi is a first-year in the School of Foreign Service.
