Lakeville South High School aims to foster well-rounded, lifelong learners who will contribute meaningfully to a dynamic global society. The school’s vision is to prepare students for 21st-century success through individualized learning, community partnerships, and a culture defined by integrity. These ideals can be seen through the different activities South hosts, like this year’s Culture Week.
What exactly is Culture Week?
Culture Week is a celebration at Lakeville South that honors and highlights diversity in our school community.
What is the goal of Culture Week?
Culture Week is supposed to create a space for students to “share their roots, traditions, and personal identities,” and to learn about others, according to Ms. Osorio.
How did Cultural Week become a thing at South?
LSHS’s Cultural Week happened last week (4/14-18) after lots of planning from members of different alliance groups, and particularly Elibeth Osorio. This week was created after a student approached Ms. Osorio and said he wanted to showcase his culture before graduating this year. This led to Ms. Osorio bringing the idea of a Cultural Week to the school administration. Once it was approved, Ms. Osorio took a crucial role in “planning and organizing the event, working closely with the advisors and student leaders from LSU, BSU, and ASU to bring the week’s activities to life.” She said that she was very involved throughout the events for Cultural Week. I asked her about how the themes for each day were chosen, and she said it was “through collaboration with Alliance advisors.” She said that she wanted each day to reflect the backgrounds of the students at South to make everyone feel seen and included. She states that she is proud to see everyone come together to share and celebrate different cultures and “create a space where everyone feels seen and valued.” She hopes that Culture Week will grow in the coming years here at South.
Members from ASU, MSU, and BSU and their opinions on the week
Leaders from the different alliance groups also played a key role and had some insight into how the week was planned and how it went. A survey was offered to those involved in the different alliances, and I got responses from ASU and MSU leaders, and BSU and LSU performers. Ben Nguyen, who is an ASU leader, commented that the setup for this week was nice, but it felt very rushed. He says that this week is an important “stepping stone to bigger and better things.” He hopes that in the future the district will approve other events similar to this that are longer. Lina Alishaqi, a leader for MSU, said that the setup was a month-long process with meetings 1-2 times each week during WIN time. She added that the biggest challenge was “getting people to feel excited and participate in the week.” She got the opportunity to represent both her Iraqi and Islamic cultures during Cultural Week. She thinks it’s an important week since everyone gets to learn about other cultures, and she hopes this event can become bigger in the following years. Sara Lamah, who had involvement with a BSU performance and fashion show, stated that though lots of effort went into planning, they were in a “time crunch” and barely had any time to go over the “performance[s], fashion show, and other things.” She represented West Africa and the Ivory Coast by wearing traditional clothes and dancing to songs from West Africa. She said that she enjoyed the food and learning about different cultures while “having fun with my friends.” She says that this week is important because people get a chance to represent their culture, as culture “makes me who I am today, and I would not change that for the world.” She wants people to take away from the event the fact that cultures are not “something to make fun of or see as cringe.”
Lastly, Alinne Jimenez, who was a performer for LSU, says that the biggest challenge for this week was how late notice everything was for her. She says that she had “1 month to learn my new dance, which was hard to figure out with work and stuff.” She got the opportunity to represent Mexico by dancing a Folklorico dance from Jalisco. This week is important to her because she loves to share her culture, and “it’s an honor to be able to share what others don’t know.” She believes this week was great for spreading messages of diversity, especially since “being a person of color in a predominantly white community is hard because sometimes you don’t fit in with what’s normal.” She’s glad that everyone was able to all of our differences and celebrate them as humans together.
Though not without some challenges, everything for Culture Week came together nicely to create a diverse environment to celebrate all of the cultures here at Lakeville South. Through the approval of this week, Lakeville has shown that students’ culture is a big part of the community.
Photo Gallery
(Photo credits belong to Ms. Osorio)
