As the curtains rise, Jefferson students, parents, family, and friends prepare for their hearts to beat to the rhythm of international tunes. For years, hosted by Namaste, the Jefferson international night, iNite, has been a classic tradition as student performers showcase acts that represent the school’s diversity. This year the event, titled “Break the Boundaries”, took place on Feb. 10 with 22 acts and nearly a thousand student performers. Besides the performers, behind the scenes, Namaste officers, or iNite coordinators, commit much of their time and efforts in order to organize and plan the extravaganza months in advance.

“It’s a lot of work,” junior Sanjana Meduri, historian of Namaste and Namaste underclassmen girls choreographer, said. “Because you have to stay after school to talk to GMU [George Mason University] people sometimes, but a lot of it is online too, so like sending out information to all of the other acts, making sure they all fill out their tech sheet, getting all of the forms in and alphabetized, and other stuff like that.”

With all of the information being exchanged between Namaste officers, act choreographers, and faculty at George Mason, communication was found to be key.

“Having to deal with lots of act leaders, performers, show guests, and staff requires us to balance our work and make sure we, as officers, are all on the same page,” senior Namaste treasurer Srinidhi “Nidhi” Nagireddy said.

Among all of the challenges, Meduri and Nagireddy both agree with the difficulty of enforcing all rules clearly and fairly to the acts, their performances, and their conduct.

“The hardest part would be to make sure that each individual act follows the rules that they’re supposed to [be following], because if one doesn’t then it all gets out of control,” Meduri said.

Despite all of the difficulties, both coordinators love the position because of the time spent with other officers and the feeling of triumph upon seeing the final result.

“As Namaste officers we’ve all become close personal friends and it’s been great working with them to put on a show that means a lot to all of us,” Nagireddy said. “Namaste has been a huge part of all of our lives, and we love continuing the TJ tradition of iNite. We hope to have even more people be able to come and see the show to continue iNite for years to come.”