Burgburst Brings Together Diverse Student Communities on Campus
By Katie Oglesby, Editor-in-Chief
Burgburst 2022 (Photo Borna Ganji/The Gettysburgian)
Burgburst, Gettysburg College’s annual event celebrating diverse cultures on campus, brought hundreds of students to the College Union Building Ballroom on Saturday. The theme was “landmarks” and the dinner tables were covered with decorations and postcards of landmarks around the world.
The event began with dinner comprised of food from around the world. Student cultural organizations hosted tables with food from their cultures. There were tables from the Butterfly Coalition, Chinese Students and Scholars, Japanese Culture Club, Vietnamese Student Association, German Culture Club, Black Student Union, Muslim Student Association, International Club, and Latin American Student Association. The International Club provided Liberian food at one of their tables.
Tickets cost $12 and all the proceeds will go to a local charity. They raised over $3000 from these ticket sales.
After dinner, emcee Thea Albin ’25 announced the flag walk, where students carried out flags representing their countries.
Albin, who was involved with the planning of Burgburst, explained, “When signing up for the flag walk, the participants don’t know who else will be with them from their countries. Seeing people being surprised to find other people from their home countries and excitedly chatting with their new friends is really heartwarming.”
Katie Polero ’25 kicked off the student performances singing an Irish folk song. Student dance groups Divine Dance Ensemble, Vibe Dance Crew and Bomb Squad performed. Performances also included poetry, Bollywood-style dancing, and dance to Vietnamese Pop (V-Pop) and Korean Pop (K-Pop).
Students holding the flag of the Republic of Korea (Photo Borna Ganji/The Gettysburgian)
Ratul Pradhan ’25 and Jack Joiner ’25 sang a Nepali folk song and a song of their own written in both Nepali and English.
Pradhan said, “For me personally, wearing my Daura Suruwal (Nepalese attire) makes me extremely proud and performing Nepali songs along with Jack allows me to mix these two different identities of mine together.”
He also said he sees Burgburst as a union of international students on campus.
“Burgburst is the one day the entire international student community really comes together regardless of language or cultural differences through the one commonality everyone shares: being proud of who they are and where they are from,” Pradhan said.
Albin reflected on the experience planning the event, and said, “I’ll be right back in the chaos next year, hopefully with all my new friends.”
She noted that, “The class of 2026 had so many new international students and I didn’t really have the chance to meet them until Burgburst. I really appreciate that every year I get the chance to work with so many people from so many different places to host a massive event where those students can share their cultures with each other.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article misstated that Zouave was present at the event. It was instead Divine Dance Ensemble and Vibe Dance Crew. (- K. Oglesby)
