Cosmopolitan Club

Curator Information

Daniela Gamez Salgado, University of KentuckyFollow

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Description

The Cosmopolitan Club provided a space for students from the United States and international students to gather and learn from one another. The organization’s presence throughout the 20th century, existing as early as 1912 but officially founded in 1921, held a strong influence on the infrastructure of culturally-based student organizations at the University of Kentucky. The long-lived student organization catered to meet the needs of international students throughout their endeavours navigating the University of Kentucky. While their presence tapered off in the early 21st century, the Cosmopolitan Club’s student-led efforts to showcase underrepresented communities and encourage cross-cultural relations continue to exemplify the power of unity through diversity.

In the context of students from Latin America, the Cosmopolitan Club also served as a space to celebrate Latin American cultures and as an opportunity for these students to explore leadership roles greater accessibility to leadership experience. This photo of the Cosmopolitan Club in 1945 is an example of a time when both President Huguette Balzola from Ciudad de México, Mexico and Vice President Raul Lardizabal from Juticalpa, Honduras, held influential leadership roles (Balzola is first from the right in the first row and Lardizabal is third from the right in the first row).

Curation Date

9-2019

Photo Source

University of Kentucky. (1945). Kentuckian 1945. Lexington, KY: The Kentucky Kernel.