Organizations such as the University Activities Board host on-campus events daily, but not enough students take advantage of some of the fun and diverse activities a short walk from where they call “home.” Recently, I was one of those students.

Last week, one of my international friends invited me to Global Festival, a free event showcasing different cultures represented on campus. At the time, I only vaguely remembered seeing that name somewhere. The day before the event, I realized advertisements for Global Festival were posted on every single cafeteria sign. The name even covered a good fifth of an entire side in big, bold font. Even with the event so clearly advertised, I still managed to miss it.

When Sunday came and I entered Brody Square, the entire first floor was flooded with people. To my surprise, most weren’t even current students. Most seemed to be families that live near campus, who came to check out the festival.

The area was transformed with rows and rows of tables covered in bright tapestries from across the world. The walls were lined with posters with information about each country, with photos of food, animals and scenery. There was a Chinese tea leaf demonstration, a Russian musical performance with traditional instruments and a unique Thailand sitting dance performed by my friend.

It was pretty shocking that I would have missed the event if my friend hadn’t told me about it.

What amazed me the most was that I wasn’t the only student who was ignorant of the opportunity — it was the amount of non-students at the event. Despite how widely proclaimed the event was, the student attendance rate was incredibly shy.

During the following days when I brought the event up in conversation, many of my other friends had no clue what I was talking about. When I explained to some senior friends about how it was a yearly event, they merely shrugged their shoulders and asked me what it was about.

The message here is quite clear: Students should pay more attention to what the campus has to offer. The events are even posted on the UAB’s calendar on its website. Out of the few friends of mine that did attend Global Festival, they definitely had a blast. One of them was so caught up in the festival that I saw him when I was getting lunch and again when I was getting dinner.

We are all students and attend college so that we can search for opportunities. However, classes should not be the only place to search. There are amazing things to learn outside of the classroom through the many activities that are provided through student groups and other organizations. If everyone knew, I probably would have sat with more than the three other people in the screening of award-winning film “Fruitvale Station” on Saturday.

After all, we pay a lot of money to attend MSU and all of its wonder, so it would make sense not to hesitate and just participate. I shouldn’t be the only one excited for this week’s cinema lineup on campus.