Wilde Lake’s diverse community has the opportunity to celebrate all of the differences among the students and staff on Culture Day, but this year was a little different. The Wilde Lake SGA and the Culture Day Committee implemented a Culture Awareness week.

“It allowed Wilde Lake students and staff to share their cultures and traditions [all week],” said Toni Heo, who was on the Culture Day Committee.

In the summer of 2015, ESOL teacher and International Club sponsor, as well as organizer of Culture Day, Mr. Browder left Wilde Lake, which made it “challenging,” for the students to organize and plan, said Heo.

“There were so many things we needed to consider and organize. It was challenging, but with the help of Ms. Fedors and the Culture Day Committee, this year’s Culture Day was successful,” said Heo.

This year’s Culture Day was put together by a small but devoted group of organizers to continue the idea of promoting cultural awareness, on a smaller scale.

For Heo, Culture Day is her favorite event held at Wilde Lake. “I just love the idea of sharing diversity, promoting culture and music and food from around the world and creating a more welcoming environment for foreign-born students.”

As for the future, Heo hopes to make a bigger difference. “This year’s Culture Day was especially special to me and other seniors, since it was our last time to celebrate the Wilde Lake diversity and culture. I hope Culture Day will [continue] to foster greater international understanding in students. Hopefully this event will [start to] break down stereotypes and ethnic profiling, in the future.”

Speaking for the rest of the Culture Day Committee, Heo would like to “thank all of our Wilde lake students and staff for enjoying and participating for this year’s Culture Day. The participants not only set up the tables properly but they also managed to clean each table after the event was done. [We] especially want to thank the SGA and the Culture Day Committee for helping out with organizing and planning. [We] also greatly appreciate the help of Ms Fedors and other ESOL teachers who managed to make this year Culture Day a huge success.”

Wilde Lake looks forward to another successful Culture Day next year.