A photo from a previous Thanksgiving dinner provided by Off-Campus Student Services and the Sound Devil Family Association. (Photo Courtesy of
Maureen Duane)
Thanksgiving is a holiday that brings families together. However, not all ASU students will have a chance to enjoy homemade food with their family and friends.
Thanks to several ASU initiatives, students will be able to experience that homelike atmosphere and eat traditional holiday food without leaving campus.
Computer science graduate student Yash Garg said he hasn’t seen his family in 18 months and won’t be able to be with them during this holiday season.
To feel friendly, family-style atmosphere Garg is planning to attend the Thanksgiving dinner for international graduate students organized by Graduate and Professional Student Association.
“I’m going just to have a taste of American culture,” he said. “Since Thanksgiving is all about family and my family is 9,000 miles away, it’s going be a very like home feeling experience.”
The potluck dinner will take place on Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Tempe Graduate Student Center. Students are encouraged to bring some dishes to add to the traditional Thanksgiving food served by the organizers.
When Garg arrived in the U.S. from India last year he said he didn’t know that Thanksgiving is a big holiday and spent his day doing his usual daily routine.
This year, Garg said he has a better grasp of the culture and wants to celebrate the holiday. Garg said he is going to cook a wheat pie, a sweet desert common in India, to contribute to the eclectic mixture of traditional American and ethnic dishes at the potluck.
“It’s my first time attending Thanksgiving,” he said. “When I came, I had no idea about Thanksgiving, it was just a normal day. Now I’ve learned about the culture, and I’m ready to blend in.”
Another Thanksgiving Dinner will happen on Thanksgiving Day at 11 a.m. at the Off-Campus Student Services building. The meal, which is organized by the Off-Campus Student Services in partnership with the Sun Devil Family Association, will serve more than 500 students and their families in a cozy family-style atmosphere.
Robin Hengl, executive director of family engagement at ASU Sun Devil Family Association, said the tradition started seven years ago to help students feel at home even if they are far from their families.
“First of all we have a lot of students who can’t go home for Thanksgiving,” she said. “And then we have a lot of international students who may not have anywhere to go and it’s nice to be able to learn about traditions that we have here.”
With the help of parent and student volunteers, the event has been growing each year to ensure that students have a place to go during the holidays, Hengl said. Each year grateful students leave many thank-you notes on a big poster that is carefully preserved by Hengl afterward.
“It started out really small, and it grew really quickly,” she said. ”We are very happy to do it because if you can’t be home for Thanksgiving, you know that (there’s) a place to go to a very warm environment.”
Business communication sophomore Dina De Leon is going to volunteer at the meal for the second year. De Leon said she understands how important it is to be around the close friends or family during the long Thanksgiving weekend.
De Leon said she is going to volunteer at the meal on Thursday to help provide sense of family and community to the less fortunate students.
“I just feel very grateful that I have the opportunity to be there with people and share the experience, just because I think everybody should have a place to go at this time of the year,” De Leon said.
Christopher Callahan, founding dean of Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will host a Thanksgiving dinner for the students attending the school. The tradition started six or seven years ago and is expected to bring 12 students to the dean’s house this year.
Callahan and his wife will prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal to serve in a very informal atmosphere inviting student guests to eat, watch football and play games in the backyard.
“Thanksgiving is one of those holidays where people are used to being around family,” Callahan said. “I’m hopeful for the ones who can’t get home, it will bring a little bit of family atmosphere... For us also, it’s been a great treat to have a full house.”
Reach the reporter at kmaryaso@asu.edu or follow on Twitter @KseniaMaryasova
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