Leadership’s Diversity and Inclusion Commission welcomed students back from spring break with its annual cultural week from April 8-12. Notably, Thursday, April 11 featured the second annual International Food Night and students showcased cultural performances ranging from dances to musical acts at lunch throughout the week. 

A mariachi band kicked off the week with a performance at lunch on the main stage on Monday, April 8. On Wednesday, April 10, seniors Myla Pallera and Tanat Alberts performed a Thai-Laos song, senior Tyler Wong performed a Chinese-American dance inspired by martial arts and sophomore Scarlett Bounds and senior Tilly Haskell performed a traditional Irish dance. Then on Friday, April 12, sophomore Kevin Moran sang and played “Born to be Wild” by Steppenwolf on a guitar.

Bounds and Haskell began Irish dancing at a young age, with Haskell beginning at four years old and Bounds beginning at eight years old. Bounds and Haskell dance together outside of school, making them a perfect fit to perform an Irish dance together. Both Bounds and Haskell believe the celebration was a great way for students to feel connected to the school.

“When you’re at a school, it can feel like you’re kind of isolated from everyone if you’re not really like engaging with them. So being able to share a part of something that’s outside of school for us, and a part of a greater culture, for a lot of people I think can really connect the school student body,” Haskell said.

Events extended beyond the school day. On Thursday, leadership hosted the second annual International Food Night in the A-building. Students set up tables and offered food from a variety of countries. Diversity and Inclusion introduced something new this year: passports, allowing students to collect stamps from tables’ countries they visited.

Junior Reiter Madden represented Vietnam with deconstructed bánh mì sandwiches, with sausage meat and pickled vegetables on a french baguette. The meal was common in Madden’s family.

“When my grandma comes up from LA we usually [eat this meal] a lot more, like we’ll have a bánh mì for lunch, like a weekend, [the sandwiches] are not something I’ll only make here,” Madden said.

Similarly, sophomore Anthony Wen, who represented China, handed out Chinese candies and Chinese noodles, a staple meal in his daily life.

“These are more traditional dishes, personally in my family I eat it every day almost, so I kind of just want to share it to our BHS community,” Wen said.

Last year, the performances were combined into one cultural assembly held at flex. This year, Diversity and Inclusion decided to scatter performances throughout the week because it doesn’t take away flex time and provides a more relaxed environment.

“We’re going to take stock of how this year goes and then make a judgment call as to whether we want to go back to the former model of having a school wide assembly, we want to stick to a lunch performance model, or we want to go a different direction, like maybe just a talent show without the cultural component,” said Bethany Li, who advises the Diversity and Inclusion commission.

Originally, the celebration was scheduled as a fall event. In the fall semester, the Club and Class Commission coordinated with cultural clubs to find students that were willing to perform in the cultural celebration. Many did not have time to participate and there were insufficient student volunteers, so leadership moved the event from January 29 to February 2, giving them a chance to try a different model of the assembly. The week was then postponed to April to ensure the performers had enough time to perfect their acts.

“So we wanted to have more time to focus on supporting performers, giving them more opportunity to practice and refine their presentation, and scaling back the pressure by doing a lunch format as a trial just to see if that approach created a more inclusive, perhaps less intimidating performance space,” Li said.

Senior Diversity and Inclusion lead Ava Gonzalez spearheaded the organization of the performances and International Food Night of the impact it has on students.

“I’m really passionate about diversity inclusion on the campus, and I feel like those two events are where people really enjoy it and appreciate different cultures, and things that they usually wouldn’t see, like that’s great,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez regards last year’s celebration as very memorable to her, which pushed her to want to continue the event for other students to celebrate cultures, whether it be their own or their peers’.

“It’s been kind of like a school tradition to do this. And I think it’s really important, as I said, to get students very engaged and celebrate all the kind of diversity and different cultures we have at this school,” Gonzalez said. “And I just really enjoyed it last year. I think both the assembly and food night were very impactful for me. And so I think that’s why we just continue it so that students are able to enjoy different cultures and have a special week to celebrate that.”

Overall, the cultural week provided a great opportunity for students to connect to their school, learn more about other cultures and celebrate their own.

“I think when people don’t come from the same background or anything it’s really cool to share what you do and it’s just cool for everyone to know about,” Bounds said.