The Cross Cultural Internship Program (www.theccip.com) spent the weekend in Flushing Meadows Park attending the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, the largest multi-cultural festival in the state. Celebrating the fifth month of the lunar calendar, this annual event includes a parade, Asian folk arts and crafts, a food court featuring a variety of ethnic cuisines, and the US Dragon Boat Open Championship Races. The CCIP exchange visitors formed teams to compete in the races.

In the weekends leading up to the festival, CCIP's volunteer racers met up to practice. Despite the races being a new experience for the group, they came together as a team to compete and have fun. At the festival, the team wore the program's t-shirt bearing the motto, "We're all in this together."

Yang He (Anne), a student at the University of Hong Kong, served as a team captain for the races and saw just how well the team united to compete. "We came to the races to have fun," Anne said, "but we also wanted to do our best. Even if no one expected us to win, we wanted to prove that we are a good team."

Ying Huang (Rain), the other team captain, and a student at Macau University of Science and Technology, agreed. "This program is teaching us the skills to succeed in our careers. One of the most important lessons is that working together gets us further. You can't win a race if everyone is going at their own pace."

Beyond the races, the festival was represented by the diverse offerings of various cultures from Asia, Europe, and more. There were numerous musicians and dancers for entertainment, and even exhibitions of martial arts. The CCIP exchange visitors manned a booth together, meeting with locals and giving a fun introduction to their own culture to the children in attendance.