International and domestic students came together to participate in cricket and kickball games, providing each with an opportunity to play a sport they may not have been completely familiar with. The event was hosted by the International Students Office on September 8, 2023, a weather make-up day for the originally planned welcome week event. Many students showed up to the event, enjoying several rounds of cricket. After a few hours, the participants then opted to play kickball for the remaining hours before the event was concluded.
There was also food and beverages available for all attendees. Free t-shirts were handed out to each person who showed up to the event.
Many domestic students may not have much knowledge on cricket and how it is played.
Freshman Aryan Nautiyal, one of the students who participated in the event, described what cricket is.
“Cricket is pretty much just an international sport. It’s, like, similar to baseball. There’s similarities to baseball, but some differences,” Nautiyal described.
“It’s pretty much just hitting and running, but instead of four bases, it’s back and forth,” he added.
Aryan also explained why he wanted to participate in this event.
“I wanted to come to this event mainly because I had recently joined GA, the Global Ambassadors program, and…when I first came to the open meeting, like, convocation for all the students, this is one of the events I found on the Corq app,” he explained.
While cricket and kickball may seem like completely different sports, they are actually quite similar in how they are played.
Dr. Charles Lord, Assistant Director of the International Students Office, described how each of the sports are similar and how teaching the sports to each other led to an opportunity to build a repertoire with their fellow colleagues.
“They’re really comparable in a lot of ways,” Lord said. “The domestic students would sort of find something foundational in their culture and vice versa,” he added.
Lord also discussed why the event was held to begin with.
‘It was going to be kind of like this global friendship event where…international students who knew how to play cricket would teach domestic students that sport, and domestic students who knew how to play kickball would teach kickball to international students,” Lord said. “What better way to make some connections,” he added.
The cricket and kickball game is just one of several events the International Students Office is holding this semester. The next event was a spicy noodle challenge, held on Friday, September 15.
To keep up to date with events being held by the office, be sure to check the Corq or Student Engagement app regularly. Students and staff can also check out the campus’s calendar of events at https://harrisburg.psu.edu/calendar.
