Annual Events

Cultural

Mini-Cultural Show
The annual Mini-Cultural Show is a great way to start off the new school year! It gives a chance for upperclassmen to reunite after a long summer apart, and also gives freshmen a chance to see what SAS and the South Asian community at Penn have to offer. This show features performances from all of the South Asian performing arts groups on campus, as well as booths that showcase the cultural, political, and religious groups affiliated with South Asia, so new students can decide which organizations they'd like to be a part of. In addition to a full South Asian dinner, this event offers everything you need to learn more about the South Asian culture at Penn.

Movie Screenings
It's hard to stay on top of the latest Bollywood movies when you're in college - so SAS holds movie screenings throughout the year of the most popular and most acclaimed movies that deal with South Asians. These events are always a good study break with food and entertainment. If you have any suggestions for movies to be screened, please contact our VP Cultural.

Cooking Competition
Who doesn't love food? And it's even better when made by your fellow SAS members! This event brings together all members of the SAS community in a competition to see who can come up with the best dishes from various ethnic cuisines. Enter this winter cooking competition with your SAS family and learn a little more about cultural foods and about each other!

Spring Cultural Show
The Spring Cultural Show is our biggest event of the year. This show is held in Irvine Auditorium on Penn's campus each year, and it attracts audiences of 900-1000 people from the Penn, Philadelphia, Delaware, New Jersey and New York areas. With over 200 performers, this event showcases South Asian talent at its best, whether it's singing, dancing, acting, or anything in between. Regardless of what talents you may have, everyone can participate in this show.

Mela
SAS ends each year with a giant festival celebrating South Asian culture! Held on College Green, this fair is a great way to stroll through the different interpretations of South Asian culture. This can be food, community service, performing arts, literature, clothes, artwork, and anything else you can think of! This event showcases what the different South Asian groups on campus have been doing for the year, plus offers games, food and performances for everyone to enjoy. This is a great way to spend an afternoon immersed in culture.

Social

Back to School Party
Starting a new semester can be unpleasant at best. That's why SAS figured this was the best time to throw a party! Look out for details about our bi-annual Back to School parties held in Center City every September & January to kick off a hell of a good new term.

Sibling program
You're a freshman. What do you know about Penn? That we're the "social ivy"? Good start. Here's the next step: Check out the new SAS sibling program! SAS personally matches you up with a Big Brother or Sister to serve as your first-year mentor, introduce you to life on campus, and help you navigate the mean streets of Locust Walk. What's even better is that the two of you are matched with another sibling pair to make a family: two Bigs and two Littles who attend SAS and SAS-related events together to earn points. Points get you prizes and tickets; it's like Chuck E. Cheese's - but better.

South Asia Society Semi-Formal
A night of SAS and class, our Annual Semi-Formal attracts our members in their finest formals every April. This elegant affair boasts a dessert reception and full open bar for an annual event that remains unforgettable especially for the seniors who have the honor of receiving their Senior Superlatives at Semi. Keep checking for your invitation, coming Spring 09.

Political

Speaker Series
SAS is always eager to bring you the most relevant and interesting topics of our day through speakers throughout the semester. Whether it's issues on the socio-political climate of South Asia, religious unity, or even today's most popular South Asian comics, we aim to bring you speakers who both inform and inspire our members. If you have any ideas for people you'd like to see us bring, please let us know!

Discussions
Learning is usually best done when you interact with your peers. Based on this principle, SAS will beholding various discussion groups throughout the semester based on events relevant to you, the Penn student interested in South Asia. As always, in an effort to bring our members what they'd like to hear, we are looking for suggestions on discussion topics.

Community Service
Lending a helping hand is something everyone loves to do, and SAS helps to promote philanthropy through various community service events. We will be holding once-a-month events where you can volunteer your time for a few hours, like our annual "Be the Change" Day that benefits local Philadelphia organization. We also have semester long programs where you can volunteer a few hours each month, such as our mentoring program or our partnership with the Arts & Spirituality Center of Philadelphia that provides poetry workshops for South Asian and African high school students from the University City area.