5X’s International Students and Scholar Services in the Office of Global Education is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 24 for international students who want to experience a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
Dinner will be held from 6-8 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Ballroom Balcony. Students pay $5 to enjoy the feast.
Hari Prasad Tadaka, Kent State digital sciences graduate student, says he plans to attend the dinner, and it is his first Thanksgiving in the United States.
“I’m excited to try all the different foods,” Tadaka says.
Tadaka is an international student from South India, who lives close to the Kent Campus with five of his friends also from his home country.
“We all like to go out and explore,” Tadaka says. “All of us plan to go shopping on Black Friday and take advantage of the cheaper rates.”
Other students are enjoying Thanksgiving dinner off campus, such as Peiyun Shen, business administration graduate student from China. Shen says she will spend Thanksgiving at her host family’s house.
“They invited me over since I don’t have any family from around here,” Shen says. “I am most excited about trying turkey.”
Rohan Valvekar, technology graduate student, says this year for Thanksgiving, he will be visiting his aunt in San Diego. Valvekar says he has had an informal Thanksgiving with a friend last semester where he was able to eat traditional food such as turkey and casserole.
“I’d always see thanksgiving food on TV sitcoms so I asked my friend if we can have a small, informal Thanksgiving dinner,” Valvekar says. “This year, I hope to have bacon at Thanksgiving dinner. I’m from India where they don’t have many meat products, so I just tried bacon for the first time two weeks ago. Now I crave it all the time.”
Learn more about Kent State’s International Students and Scholar Services