When students can’t go home for Thanksgiving, they experience tradition at Meredith College
For many college students Thanksgiving is an opportunity to go home, reconnect with high school friends, watch the Macy’s parade or NFL football on TV and share a meal with family. But international or out-of-state students often can’t go home for the holiday.
At Meredith College, those students are invited to President Jo Allen’s house for a traditional and memorable Thanksgiving meal.
“Nobody should be alone during the holidays,” Allen said. “It’s a time when people can’t go home that I think they’re particularly missing their friends and family. We want to make sure that’s not how any of our students feel.”
For nine years, Allen has opened her home to students and staff members on the day before Thanksgiving.
This year, the buffet-style meal was complete with a carving station of roast beef and turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, baked macaroni and cheese, pecan pie and other holiday foods.
“It’s a great opportunity for friendship and celebrating a cultural Americana kind of tradition,” Allen said, “and get them time to talk about their own traditions.”
Allen also brought a special part of her family to the meal with a strawberry pretzel salad that’s her mother’s recipe.
About 25 to 30 students from all over the world sat around decorated tables in the living room, showing each other where their home country is on the map, sharing how they found Meredith and talking about their plans for the future. Some came to Raleigh from Trinidad and Tobago, West Africa, Bosnia, Kenya, South Korea, Puerto Rico and California.
“It’s a really special event because most of us don’t get to go home for Thanksgiving and to a lot of us we don’t have Thanksgiving, it’s not something that we celebrate,” said Marie Johnson, a senior from Gambia. “This is a really new experience that is helping adapt to this new culture that we’re living in.“
For Vanja Grgic, a senior from Bosnia, this event reflects what Meredith is all about and why she wanted to go to this college. She hasn’t been back to Bosnia since 2015, but this school of about 2,000 students has made her feel at home.
“It’s all about tradition, people helping each other and bringing people together and feeling like a family,” Grgic said. “For people who are not able to be with their families on this holiday, it’s really nice and you feel special."
Thanksgiving traditions at local campuses
Several other campuses around the Triangle have special events or opportunities for students to celebrate Thanksgiving.
UNC-Chapel Hill hosts a Tar Heel Thanksgiving for students staying on campus during the holiday break. Members of The Carolina Club and the UNC Office of Student Affairs invite students to enjoy a free traditional Thanksgiving meal that’s funded through donations. The tradition was started six years ago by former Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp. Last year it fed more than 600 Carolina students.
It is a longstanding tradition at Duke University for community members to host international students and families for Thanksgiving.
East Carolina University’s Office of Global Affairs invites students to an International Potluck before Thanksgiving as part of International Education Week.
At N.C. State, international students and visitors are able to sign up for a homestay program to experience the American Thanksgiving tradition through the Global Training Initiative. Local families, faculty, staff, alumni, and students sign up as hosts and are matched with guests to share the holiday experience.
This story was originally published November 28, 2019 at 12:50 PM.
