Club Spotlight: Indian Student Association

Written by T. Kinkley, Art and Culture Writer

Celebrating Diwalli. Photo Courtesy CNN indoor

At Washington and Jefferson College, we have a lot of diversity. One way that we continue to promote diversity is through our multitude of clubs representing different nationalities, races, ethnicities, identities, etcetera. It is important to educate and spread information about diversity on campus.

This week, I spoke with the treasurer of the Indian Student Association, Dev Kartan. He also helps with graphic design, posters, and some financial committee items. Kartan is a student of the class of 2025. The Indian Student Association was created by the current executive board. I asked Kartan a few questions to get more information on ISA.

The first question I asked was “What is the purpose of this club? What is it intended to do for the school?” Kartan responded, “The purpose of ISA is to raise awareness for and share our culture with the community on this campus. We want to center education as a tool against bigotry by allowing students to glimpse the beautiful parts of our culture through our food and festivities!”

“We want to center education as a tool against bigotry by allowing students to glimpse the beautiful parts of our culture through our food and festivities!” - Kartan’25

The next question I asked was about when and where they met. “We meet monthly, we use GroupMe to organize that and the meetings are just for event planning,” Dev said.

Following that question, “Is there a favorite event of yours that the executive board planned that you are hoping to see back?” Dev is most excited about Diwali, saying, “We do wanna diversify the events we do in the future but I’m looking forward to Diwali again, we want to plan it to be bigger and better than before.” Diwali was a big hit with the students, as ISA posted on their Instagram after the event. “Thank you all for coming to our Diwali event and making it such a vibrant experience!” the caption said, with a slideshow of images from the event.

“We do wanna diversify the events we do in the future but I’m looking forward to Diwali again, we want to plan it to be bigger and better than before.” - Kartan’25

The final question that I asked was about the hopes for the future of the club. Keeping it short, all Dev said was “Hopefully some other people can take over the club when we’re gone!”

To learn more about the Indian Student Association, or join GroupMe, visit @wj_ISA, and their GroupMe link is the link on their profile. ISA’s Instagram page also contains recaps of past events and posts about future and upcoming events.