WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., April 10, 2025 – The Rollie Williams International Center and the International Student Club at West Liberty University (WLU) hosted the 15th annual International Food Festival on Monday, April 7, 2025 in the College Union Ballroom.
The festival is a unique opportunity for our community to savor and try the ethnic cuisines of different cultures right here on campus. Ethnic dishes were served representing 12 different countries including: Armenia, Azerbaijan, D.R. Congo, Georgia, India, Japan, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malawi, Morocco, Pakistan & Tunisia.
Close to a thousand sarmas and dolmas have been hand rolled by our students to delight our guests. Sarmas are meat cabbage rolls from Macedonia and dolmas are savory meat grape leaves made by our students from Armenia and Azerbaijan. Other WLU students volunteered to help make dolmas and learn the precise wrapping technique, while discussing, bonding and growing their friendships.
“Dolma holds a special place at the heart of Azerbaijani cuisine; each layer carries history and love. Sharing it felt like offering a piece of my culture and I am thankful to WLU for creating a space where I could reflect my own culture and for all the support I receive here. It was such an enjoyable experience for me to participate in the International Food Festival and a memory that I will always remember,” says Masma Alieva, an exchange student from Azerbaijan.
When you’re an international student, the one thing that brings home a little closer – besides family – is food. “Being part of the International Food Festival for the past three years has been such a special experience for me. It’s not just about sharing a dish – it’s about sharing our stories, our culture, and a piece of where we come from with the campus community. Cooking food from India and seeing students from other countries do the same creates this amazing sense of connection. From chopping and stirring to serving and smiling, it all brings back the smells, the flavors, and the warmth of home. I know so many of my friends here look forward to this event every year. It’s truly one of my favorite traditions on campus, and I’m so grateful to WLU for giving us this platform to celebrate our roots,” adds Ishika Agarwal, who currently studies in the MBA program and is a GA with the College of Business.
WLU enjoys the presence of 52 international students from 29 countries this year, according to Mihaela Szabo, Director of International Enrollment Services at WLU. West Liberty University is West Virginia’s oldest public university, and it offers more than 70 undergraduate majors and 12 graduate programs, both online and on campus. Learn more at westliberty.edu.
