Congratulations to the Cape Verdean Student Association for being awarded Org of the Month for February!
CVSA is a cultural org at Bentley that aims to celebrate and generate awareness about the Cape Verdean culture. The group was created in 2012 and we got the chance to interview three members from the org- Anapaula Gomes (Class of 2018), Marc Abrogar (Class of 2017) and Jannee Merritt (Class of 2019) to find out more about the org and what they do!
We started off the interview by asking them what kinds of events they host, and they told us about the recent events they held like the Pasada night and the cultural party. Anapaula, a member of CVSA described Pasada as “ a dance from Angola that Cape Verdeans adopted into their culture”. CVSA gave the Bentley community a chance to learn the cultural dance by providing instructors to teach beginners, as well as the chance to enjoy hot Cape Verdean food after all the dancing! “ The food is the best part!” Marc explained. We were intrigued about what Cape Verdean cuisine was like so he continued to explain that it was mainly chicken and rice but that there was a special Cape Verdean way of preparing it! That just accentuated our curiosity and we’re already looking forward to trying our first Cape Verdean dish.
We got to talk more about the Cape Verdean culture, and Janee and Anapaula told us a major part of the culture was family values; “ We love having an org on campus which brings everyone together, it feels like family”. Each of them told us that the “family feel” was their favorite aspect of the org. CVSA was able to answer that one question we’re all asked at open house, “ what does it mean to be a student at Bentley University?” — it means being a part of the Bentley family!
CVSA’s next event is going to be held in the 921, where they’re going to give the chefs special Cape Verdean recipes for all of us to enjoy while listening to some great music courtesy of a live DJ. You’re going to want to look out for that one!
