“You can truly be your own self…” Multicultural Club activities

Malika Saliyeva

In Wheeling High School you can run into an absolute big amount of clubs, activities, sports that you could do. Having an opportunity for a wide choice of clubs is way more staggering than you can imagine! But what are those clubs? What’s so interesting about having extra work for school? Believe it or not — it is not extra work. But what club should you choose? Of course it is all about your preferences, interests, hobbies and everything you enjoy. However I want to tell you about one very interesting thing…
Multicultural club! Have you ever heard of that? What you might have heard about is Display Of Cultures. Probably the most interesting and fun day of the year. Why? Because you get to show your own self to everyone. You get to present your home, your country, your traditions and your culture. Moreover, you get to have fun all day, watch performances in theatre and skip classes. However — Display of Cultures is just a part of the Multicultural Club. Multicultural Club is way more than just an after-school activity. “The idea of Multicultural Club is actually to connect people around the world.” Ms. Fastov, who has been volunteering for the club said. Even people who are just interested in different cultures are given an opportunity to explore what they like. Helping kids accept people from other countries is the main purpose of the club. Everyone knows that the best way to accept something – is learning about it! Teachers who volunteer and participate in club are helping students with that even more. All the people who want to share about their culture are engaged to participate. Multicultural club does have students who just want to present their culture in Display and it does have students who just want to be part of the club and it’s not necessarily to present your culture. It means that you can participate in it based on your needs and interests. Display of Cultures starts with promoting, going through social media and advertisement to engage people to participate. There are two parts of Display: Table portion and Performance portion. For the Table portion you just need to sign up first and attend a couple meetings where Multicultural club participants talk about what’s appropriate and what’s not. There would be a discussion of what would be great to show and what is the outcome for other students. The Performance portion is the time when the club has auditions and practices for what students want to present. Remember that you can perform with whatever you’d like to show about your culture or country. “I think Display has always been such a hit!” Fastov said. Can you imagine that Ms. Fastov has been volunteering for Multicultural club and Display of cultures already for 11 years? Display of Cultures is the event where everybody can be themselves. Just think about it: Not only you are able to tell people about your country. They can try your traditional food, see your cultural clothes and learn about the history and norms of your home. This event is not just about different locations on our planet. People are able to distract themselves from the daily routine and take a glance of what they can’t see, can’t touch, can’t smell and obviously can’t enjoy. Students share the best part of where they’re coming from and everybody else’s accepting it without any kind of judgement. Display of cultures and the Multicultural club is the time when you can bring your roots back. You can remember what you or your parents have left behind and show it to people. Display of cultures is the day when everybody is together. Multicultural club is always in need of more and more people joining,
bringing ideas and doing different things. “We post flyers, we do announcements, but we would love to hear and have more people in the actual club.” Display of cultures always has a huge participation. Wheeling High School suggests you to use this wonderful opportunity to explore and inspect other countries and their culture. There are way more than you can imagine! Don’t be afraid to join and show others your real self. Tell people who you are.