Elizabeth Ashtari
WHMS Press
West Hills MS
1st Place
MS Division, News Writing
Diversity Coverage
This year West Hills Middle School and Lone Pine Elementary School held their first Multicultural Night on Friday, March 28 at West Hills. Multiple family volunteers spotlighted their heritage by setting up booths and sharing details about their culture.
Mrs. Leah Abel, a parent coordinator said, “We had 23 countries represented from six different continents. African countries included Nigeria and Botswana. Australia, which is both a continent and a county, was represented. From Europe we had Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany, Austria and Hungary. From the Middle East and Asia we had Iran, Syria, Pakistan, India, South Korea, Japan and China, and from North and South America we had Jamaica, the Cherokee Nation, Belize, Mexico, Bolivia, Panama and Argentina. Families shared information on these countries through fun items, games, maps, and exhibits showing what their country is all about!”
Fourth-grader Lizzie Nwagwu said, “I thought Multicultural Night was fun because you got to present to people and learn about other people’s cultures.”
As students visited a different part of the world through the multiple demonstrations and displays they received a stamp in his/her pretend “passport” after visiting each country.
Students were introduced to many interesting facts. At the Nigerian display, 8th grader Tony Nwagwu told students that the President of Nigeria’s name is Goodluck Jonathan, and they have their version of the famous Hollywood sign, but theirs is Nollywood.
At the Korean table students played with Korean games, and enjoyed the drumming by 4th-grader Jimin Lee. At the China table sponsored by the Zhou family, students tried Chinese hackysack.
Eighth-grader Alex Dufour, showed students how to play Japanese games at the Japan exhibit. “I liked how there was a lot of different countries,” Jimin said.
Girls especially enjoyed getting designs painted on their hands with Henna at the Indian table sponsored by the Revankar, Tewari and Kadakol families. Multicultural Night was also a great chance to try different foods from our talented cooks from all kinds of different cultures. Delicious Middle Eastern treats were found at the tables of Syria, Iran and Pakistan sponsored by the Hakim, Ashtari, Tehrani, Moshin, and Anwar families. We sampled salsa and Mexican desserts courtesy of the Berumen, Osorio and Mercado families.
Second graders from Lone Pine sang a medley of world themed songs, and there were Mexican dancers from The Ballet Folklorico Mexico Lindo who danced dances that represented the five states of Mexico. Eighth grader, Sumanjali Reddy Kanmantha Reddy danced a beautiful classical Indian dance. It was called Bharata Natyam, a dance presentation where the dancer displays elaborate footwork and graceful movements of the body.
Multicultural Night was a perfect chance to learn about our friends, neighbors and classmates who come from all over the world.