Community Engagement Mini-Grants

The 2026 Black History Month Culture Fair marked is in its second year. Last year’s ticket sales exceeded 300. The format this year was divided into two parts. The first was an interactive floor showcasing community groups and clubs on campus dedicated to the Committee’s mission. The second part was a fashion show featuring Black student designers. All students were welcome to the fair.

Since 2006, Matsuri has been a Columbia tradition, bringing together students, faculty, and Morningside Heights residents in celebration of Japanese culture. Each spring, the event attracts close to 1,000 attendees and features both student and NYC performing groups, creating a moment of dialogue and community between Columbia and the broader New York City area. This UCI grant will help address increasing facilities and technical costs.

Given that College Walk is a central hub on campus, Columbia Pops’ College Walksicle aims to use music as a way to enhance community. The goal of these performances is to play jazz or other music requested or chosen on the spot, with makeshift chairs creating a space for people to meet others and enjoy the performance. This grant will help support three of these performances on Wednesday nights.

Convivio aims to offer a relaxing space during finals week for students of all backgrounds to gather around a communal picnic and open up to new people. Last spring, Convivio brought together all parts of the Columbia community—from first-years to graduating seniors—and allowed everyone to connect across differences while also sharing aspects of their own identities. This UCI grant will help support the student groups as they collaborate and invite additional organizations, ensuring an expanded impact for this event.

The goal of this event is to create a space where two different political parties—moderated by BridgeUSA, a student organization committed to productive disagreement—can come together to discuss the most pressing local and national issues. To help create the experience of an active town hall, there will be two to three speakers on each side, with time built in for audience participation. This UCI grant will help ensure that a large number of students from across the political spectrum participate in this event. 

The gala is a celebration of Latine culture and community contributions. It is traditionally catered by a local restaurant and co-hosted by Mujered and SHPE—two leading Latine organizations on campus. The programming includes live performances by Ballet Folklórico and Mariachi Leones, as well as an award ceremony honoring student organizations that have contributed to Columbia’s Latine community. As the summit of Latine cultural celebration at Columbia, a UCI grant will help support programming costs and ensure that as many attendees  as possible from across campus can come together for a night of community building.

This event at the Intercultural Resource Center is a Black cultural immersive experience, including cuisine from the African diaspora, Black student group performances, poetry readings, and professor-led panels. By bringing together undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and community members, this event provides an opportunity for cross-cultural dialogue and for students of similar backgrounds to find one another. A UCI grant will ensure that the different collaborating organizations, along with the IRC’s limited resources, can successfully bring this event to as many students as possible.

Tatreez is a traditional Palestinian embroidery that is both an art form and a way communities preserve their cultural memory. In conjunction with the Muslim Students Association’s Hijab Week, this event offers a hands-on embroidery experience where students can engage directly with this rich cultural tradition while also helping to dispel cultural misconceptions and humanize Palestinian hijabis. This event is open to students of all backgrounds, creating a space to learn, talk, and connect over this rich history.

The panel will feature 3–4 female business leaders in business fields, with a particular emphasis on their professional and personal experiences. The panelists will act as mentors, offering real insight and specific advice to students. The event will include student engagement, with the VP of Events asking questions to facilitate conversation, and participants will also have the opportunity to ask questions. This grant will help support a campus culture where students feel empowered as they pursue career-oriented opportunities.

KCST’s aim is to break down the inaccessibility of Shakespearean texts by refreshing them for a modern audience. Past shows have included Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This spring they will be performing Timon of Athens. The spring show in particular is an accessible theater opportunity, welcoming all students interested in working on the production or auditioning for a role, while also being free and open to the public. As KCST’s largest event, and one that requires significant logistical effort to travel and perform in multiple places across campus, this grant will help alleviate production costs.

The Lunar Gala is CSC’s largest event and features student performances, including both traditional Chinese acts and performances from cultures around the world. The night also includes one of Columbia’s largest student-run fashion shows. CSC aims to bring together diverse performers and cultures at their annual Gala, creating a multicultural fusion so that all students can see themselves represented and feel welcomed to participate.

Attracting over 150 attendees, this is the Afghan Students Alliance’s largest event and an opportunity to celebrate Afghan New Year together in community. This event will create a shared sense of belonging among Afghan students, many of whom are far away from home for Nowruz, while also giving non-Afghan students the opportunity to learn about and experience Afghan culture, food, and music. This UCI grant will help alleviate some of the logistical challenges faced by the entirely student-led team who have been dedicating months to planning this event.

The event begins with a Queer Diaspora Dinner, featuring catered and optional student-contributed foods, along with an open dialogue about personal memories associated with certain dishes. The event will then transition into a gentle wellness retreat space with activities such as yoga, journaling, aromatherapy, and communal reflection circles. Though this event is centered on the lived experiences of POC LGBTQIA+ voices, it is designed to be open and welcoming to all. As Proud Colors previously had no funding, this UCI grant will help them engage more fully with the larger queer community.

This is VSA’s biggest event of the year and features a full itinerary of activities for students to learn about Vietnamese cultural traditions, including a full Vietnamese-style dinner, cultural performances, and community-oriented games such as trivia on Vietnamese culture, Kahoot, and activities involving lucky envelopes. In the United States, Lunar New Year is often synonymous with Chinese New Year. By centering Vietnamese traditions with Tết, this event serves as a way to uplift underrepresented traditions and allow students to broaden their understanding of the New Year.

This community gala is an opportunity to both strengthen the Black and African diaspora and connect with other cultural communities on campus. It offers students the chance to understand Haitian experiences directly from students rather than from headlines. The event features a mix of cultural and educational programming—including authentic Haitian food, a presentation on Haitian politics, talks from community leaders and scholars, and Konpa dance lessons. The UCI grant will help ensure that HSA can continue strengthening its cross-community connections with non-Haitian students.

The Spring Concert will blend gospel, jazz, and R&B—a medley that speaks to Columbia’s relationship with Harlem. The event will be held during finals and is free and open to all, bringing the themes of hope and perseverance central to Black gospel music to the broader community. As this is a new student organization, this UCI grant will help establish a precedent for hosting this spring concert as a signature annual program.

The Latin Talent Show is a collaborative cultural showcase in partnership with other Latinx student organizations, including SOL, Alianza, LPEN, and Mujeres. Co-hosting ensures that students of different backgrounds can come together and take ownership of this community event as partners, something the UCI grant will help make possible. All participants will have the opportunity to engage with and actively participate in each performance, serving as a conduit for Columbia students to learn more about Latin culture and talent.

In collaboration with Disability Services and hosted during Brain Injury Awareness Month, this interactive campus event will combine brain injury awareness with an exploration of personal identity. The event will begin with stories from brain injury survivors, followed by a hands-on mask activity where participants contrast their public-facing selves with their private identities. These masks will then be publicly displayed for the Columbia community, offering solidarity to students’ voices and showing that others are not alone. This UCI grant will ensure that Columbia Synapse can provide educational resources on brain injury and encourage attendees to become better advocates for peers who may be living with invisible disabilities.

This panel featured four queer authors—Daniel Lee, Aaron Hamburger, Thomas C. Spear, and Dale Corvine—on March 2nd. The panelists spoke about their creative writing experiences and how they specifically navigate identity, self-expression, and professional life. Hearing from established queer authors gave students, particularly those aspiring to work in creative fields, mentorship and insight into balancing professional demands with self-expression.

The Alianzine is Alianza’s yearly zine dedicated to sharing stories from the Latin diaspora, and all students are invited to submit photos, poems, and other works that relate to their heritage. This will be the 5th anniversary of the zine and will culminate in a launch party featuring student performances, cultural cuisine, and physical copies of the publication. The launch event will also serve as an opportunity to receive submissions for the zine and donations to help offset printing costs. This UCI grant will help alleviate some of the fundraising burdens.

Lilabali is a “mock wedding” intentionally structured to introduce Columbia students to the traditions and artistry of Bengali weddings. The event features traditional rituals, presentations explaining the cultural and historical contexts, musical and dance performances, and an authentic Bengali dinner. Though it is a moment of celebration for Bengali students, Lilabali invites students from all identities and communities, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to gain cultural literacy. Because of the high cost of the venue, Club Bangla has traditionally had to sell tickets. This UCI grant will help make the event free for all community members to attend, alleviating that financial burden.

GSA hosts weekly dinners alongside their regular community events—game nights, paint and sip, assembling meal kits for the Columbia Food Pantry, and more. Students are invited to participate in the activities as they wish or simply take food to go. These dinners have been a valued part of the club for years, providing an important resource for students, especially those facing food insecurity.

CMTS Showcase began in 2023 as a supplement to a second mainstage show. Last year, with over 60 performers and 200 audience members, it became an annual event and included 12 musical numbers such as Wicked’s “Dancing Through Life” and Hadestown’s “All I’ve Ever Known.” It is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and low-commitment—everyone who auditions is cast, and many of the musical numbers’ directors make their student creative debut at the CMTS Showcase. Most of their funding goes toward set construction and paying for the rights to perform these numbers. This UCI grant will be used for promotional funding.

The CUPAL Gala is the only time all performing arts groups on campus “officially” come together to celebrate the Columbia arts community. Every music, dance, theater, and other stage-based group is invited to help plan, participate in, or attend the Gala. There is a coalescence of experiences—from first-time performers to those who have been involved for years—as well as participation from different cultural organizations. Because the event is free, students from outside the arts community are also welcomed to join.