MC's Annual Multicultural Fair | Sarah Strauss
The Poway Unified School District (PUSD) consists of various different people with distinct interests and varying talents, who come from different backgrounds. MC prides itself on having the most diverse campus in the district, showcasing it through several clubs and within the student sections of various events. The multicultural fair started three years ago to further display and celebrate people’s differences at MC.
Sheila Hatfield, the head of student services, has been organizing this fair since it was first implemented in 2022.
“We started it through the No Place for Hate committee because we recognized that we have over 45 languages spoken by our student body, and we wanted to find a way for people to share more about their own stories,” Hatfield said.
The multicultural fair consists of tables displaying information about different cultures. Various clubs and students bring food to share, and there are performances on the stage in the quad.
“I learned things that I probably wouldn’t have known before, and it’s just cool to see how other cultures are and how we can be so different but also look the same,” senior and former MC student Maryam Aboalsbah said.
Aboalsbah has run the Iraq table in the past where she has been able to dress up in and display Iraqi clothing.
“There's a history with how clothes look from every culture. [...] There are meanings to patterns. A Keffiyeh resembles a fish net because fishing is really important in [Iraq] because we have the Euphrates and Tigris rivers,” Aboalsbah said.
Students may be unaware of certain aspects of cultures represented in the student body. The multicultural fair provides people the opportunity to learn. Senior Salma Khwaja presented a booth about Afghanistan.
“A lot of people have different perspectives of our country. They have only seen the bad side of it. But there’s honestly a really beautiful side to it. [...] It's filled with traditions, different languages, different provinces, and different ethnic groups, which people don’t know anything about. So, I’m here to show people that we’re more than just all of those wars,” Khwaja said.
People have felt secluded from their peers due to their culture in the past. Junior Maryam Elhusseini has been able to feel less secluded by running a booth about Lebanon, allowing for people to connect to her and her country.
“There’s not a lot of Lebanese people. Freshman year, I was the only Lebanese person. So, I think it’s good to learn about the different cultures we have and be educated about their history and how that may connect to what’s going on now,” Elhusseini said.
Providing a multicultural fair also exposes people to the various clubs MC offers, some of which people may not know exist. JP Seabolt is a part of the GSA club, which is centered around the LGBTQ+ community.
"Maybe people didn’t know that we had a GSA,” Sealbolt said. “But if they are allies [or] a part of the community and they need a space to learn about that stuff and just be themselves, I think we’re a really good place for that. This [fair] is a nice way to get the word out.”
One of the multicultural fair’s goals is to give students the opportunity to understand each other and where everyone comes from.
“When people know more about each other’s story, they’re more accepting of one another, they will show empathy toward one another, and want to show kindness. I think a lot of conflict that comes up is because people just don’t take time to know where the other person’s coming from,” Hatfield said.
The multicultural fair has gained a lot of popularity over its three years of being put into effect. Moving forward, many students and faculty hope to see a fair in the spring as well as the fall. Hatfield and the members of No Place for Hate plan to continue with this event in the future, keeping in mind their main goal to showcase MC’s diversity with as many cultures as possible.