University Weekend came with multiple events to look forward to from October 5 to 8, giving students and their families a chance to enjoy the campus and its traditions. One of the most highly-anticipated events of the Weekend is the Fusion Experience, a celebration of Stockton’s cultural diversity hosted every year by Residential Life in the Campus Center Event Room. At 7:00 p.m., students and families gathered to grab free food from different countries and watch performances from multiple cultural groups of Stockton’s student body.

The event featured dishes like mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce, vegetable egg rolls, mini quiche, spanakopita, chicken wings, meatballs, and mini crab cakes. After grabbing full plates of free food, guests sat around the dance floor to watch the performers. Many groups presented during the event, including the Asian Student Alliance, the Bengali Student Association, the Pakistani Student Association, Dynesty Alliance, Stockton Tap Club, Stockton Sahara, Stockton University K-Pop Club, and more.

In between performances, the guests themselves got the chance to show off moves on the dance floor, with the DJ putting on classic songs like Jerusalema by Master KG, Wobble by V.I.C., and Cha-Cha Slide by DJ Kasper, among others. Students of all identities and nationalities were able to connect and bond together during the event, which is meant to foster a bolstered sense of community among Stockton students. There was also a 360-degree video booth for students to use, with all sorts of country flags they could wave in the shot. The Fusion Experience lived up to its name, ‘fusing’ students of all kinds together into one body.

Courtney Combs and Suleman Sami, both employees at the Multicultural Center, volunteered to emcee the event this year. Combs, a sophomore majoring in Communications and minoring in Writing, loved the turnout of the event. “Everyone did great tonight,” Combs remarked. “I feel like this created a sense of belonging as we were all coming together, supporting one another, [with] each and every different background and culture. I feel like everybody came out in support, and that’s what we need here at Stockton: support.”

Sami, a junior majoring in Computer Information Systems, agreed, stating: “This event brought everybody together. It’s literally a community, bigger than just black and white. That’s what it’s about. We need this sense of belonging on this campus.”