Fresno State held its 68th annual Peach Blossom Festival of Oral Interpretation from March 19-20.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over 4,000 students from kindergarten through sixth grade visited Fresno State to perform poetry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe purpose I hope to achieve with this event is to plant a positive seed in the hearts and minds of the students participating,\u201d said Dakota Lee-Rasavong, a member of the Peach Blossom Festival outreach committee.<\/p>\n
The Peach Blossom Festival began in 1959. Every year, it is hosted by the Department of Communication at Fresno State.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elementary students across the Central Valley showcased their performance skills and love of literature, performing either solo or in large groups alongside their classmates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe students make it so worth it,\u201d Lee-Rasavong said. \u201cAt the end of long days, it\u2019s beautiful to see our members still laughing and sharing stories.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Peach Blossom Festival is run by Fresno State students. Members on the committee handle scheduling, registration and outreach. Many committee members, including Lee-Rasavong, are Peach Blossom alumni.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fresno State students also volunteered for the event as chaperones and judges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, it feels great to be a part of something,\u201d said Jacob Arruda, a communications major at Fresno State. \u201cI see all the schools around here, all the kids smiling, so I know they\u2019re having a good time, and I feel like that\u2019s super important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arruda said that as a chaperone, he was able to give back to the community and make meaningful connections with Peach Blossom participants. He gave critiques and motivated the students during their time at the festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Charlie Bell works in registration and scheduling on the committee. He spoke with The Collegian about how the Peach Blossom Festival is a recruitment opportunity for the university.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important to \u2026 open the perspective of some of the kids, you know, maybe they want to attend Fresno State in the future,\u201d Bell said. \u201cGet a good feel for the campus, see what campus life is about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fresno State Dance Team performed for students on Thursday morning. TimeOut also made an appearance as an initiative by the committee to create a more engaging experience for attendees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During this year\u2019s Peach Blossom Festival, Fresno State hosted its Spotlight Market in the nearby Memorial Gardens. Parents, teachers and Peach Blossom participants were able to shop from more than 20 student and alumni vendors.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno State held its 68th annual Peach Blossom Festival of Oral Interpretation from March 19-20.\u00a0 Over 4,000 students…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-234439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}