Kent State Stark to share virtual cooking tutorials made by international students, faculty

An upcoming series of intercultural cooking tutorials will feature international students, faculty and their culture. 

The series of YouTube videos will feature staff and students from Kent State Stark. The participants are encouraged to share the history of their culture and facts about their dish while walking the audience through the tutorial. 

“We’re asking faculty and international students at Stark if they would like to send us videos and talk about their cultures in the videos,” said Deborah Belintani Rosa, a senior conflict and peace studies major and the president of the International Student Organization. “We want to challenge the students [and faculty] to post their recipes and pictures of what they make.”

The tradition of preparing the dishes at Stark’s Main Hall for people to try and share will be missed this year, Rosa said. Rosa co-created the series with Sarah Schmidt, assistant director of global initiatives, but the two said they had to find an alternative to the tradition this year.

“We were going to do [an event] in-person before the pandemic hit,” Rosa said. “We had everything ready, but we found a way to do it virtually.”

The series is set to begin in late March once applications from the students and staff have been collected. The tutorials will be posted by the International Student Organization and a new tutorial will be featured each week.  

Olivia Futo covers the regional campuses. Contact her at [email protected]