HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — What’s a festival without a little competition? On Thursday, Guam Community College student organizations set up booths as part of the Spring Festival, which gave them an opportunity not only to raise funds, but also to sharpen their pubic speaking skills in a competition that took festivalgoers on a tour of the Pacific.
The student organizations had two tasks for the Spring Festival, first, raise money for the spring graduates, and second, win money for the spring graduates in a friendly competition that showcased fish from the Pacific islands.
Keiana Santos, president of the Education Student Organization and her fellow members were raising funds for future educators.
“We cater to education majors, the early childhood and the American Sign Language majors. We are fundraising for the graduates who are graduating in the spring. We wanted to sell to be able to be part of the festival, we weren’t able to do the fish, unfortunately, but if you can go around everyone has their fish,” Santos said.
“The festival is like a tour of the Pacific and we were given a fish from each country. We were given Australia tripod fish, but we weren’t able to do it. We have to explain it and display some food from the country,” Santos said.
The booth with the best presentation and diorama would win funds for graduation. Although the organization didn’t have an entry, its members tried to incorporate Australia into their menu.
“We wanted to incorporate Australian food, so we don’t really have the beef that they are talking about but we wanted to do some sandwiches,” she said. “The fried Oreos caters to the sweet treats like fair food. They have fried Oreos, sponge cake, like a glazed chocolate doughnut, basically like fair food.”
Santos was hopeful her organization’s booth would raise plenty of funds for the spring graduates.
Anthony Atoigue, student and representative at the Medical Assistance Student Organization booth, was raising not only money, but also awareness.
“We bring awareness to what medical students do. We do medical outreaches, we sometimes do promotions for other places and also do fundraisers,” Atoigue said.
The booth dished out fried Oreos and Italian soda.
“Our main theme for our food is simple and easy and also we like doing carnival foods, … it’s fast and easy, it’s good to eat and it’s fun,” Atoigue said.
The MASO booth showcased a fish from Pohnpei for its competition entry.
“Diancistrus pohnpeiensis is a native fish of Pohnpei and, basically, we found very little information on it because the fish is very nocturnal and hides very well. We tried to find as much information as we could, but didn’t find much,” he said.
Each booth was judged and, according to Atoigue, “depending on which rank you get, we get money for the organization towards funding things like (graduation) sashes, gowns, luncheons, whatever the organization chooses to do for the class itself.”
He said he was hopeful for the win.
A few booths down was Daviana Evangelista, president of the Criminal Justice Student Association. Her group’s booth was selling gyoza.
“Our booth is based on the lemon peel angelfish. It’s from the Pitcairn Islands. They are 5 inches small and their life expectancy is up to 11 years. They have a unique color and certain characteristics that certainly stand out,” Evangelista said.
She told the Post that for the competition each fish was assigned based on a random draw.
According to a release from GCC, the Tour of the Pacific featured booths created and manned by student organizations that showcased the Pacific region’s unique island cultures.
Booths were a mix of games, food and drinks, with funds raised going to the participating student organizations.
The Spring Festival was hosted by the GCC Council on Postsecondary Student Affairs.
Guam Community College Education Student Organization member Keiana Santos makes fried Oreos during the Spring Festival on Thursday, March 4, 2024, in Mangilao.
