Multicultural Day

Written by Madeline Matheny

Every year, Hilliard Darby High School hosts a multicultural day for students to learn more about other cultures from their peers. The field house is filled with student groups representing their cultures by creating booths filled with delicious food and unique information about their culture. Students have an opportunity to learn about their peers’ different cultures and the world around them.

It was truly a celebration of cultures and it was one of the most heartwarming, incredible experiences I have ever been a part of. I was photographing for the day and spent hours asking people if they wanted their picture taken. There were numerous booths representing countries all over the world, celebrating the diversity in our own student body.

Multicultural Day was run and set up by Darby’s Diversity Club, run by President Aiman

Salam (12th grade) and Vice President Ridhi Patel (11th grade) (Both in right picture). Their responsibilities involved helping groups coordinate their food, music, and managing their time. I had the privilege of interviewing Ridhi about her experience working on multicultural day and the importance of the day.

She explained, “I think multicultural day is very important because it shows people other cultures they are not otherwise exposed to.”

Ridhi helped run the India booth which included: bringing food, making candy, and giving people henna tattoos, a temporary tattoo that comes from dying the skin.

This was Ridhi’s second year participating in multicultural day, but next year she will not only be participating in it, but also running it as Diversity Club President.

She spoke about her feelings surrounding the responsibility of being in charge

of next year’s multicultural day saying, “I’m so excited! Obviously it will be stressful, but I like being in clubs and how diverse the club is. Overall, I think it will turn out to be a lot of fun.”

Junior Spoorthi Kandali (shown in picture to the right) also participated in Multicultural Day, helping run the India booth.

She said, “I chose to do Multicultural Day because I think people have a lot of misconceptions and it [multicultural day] is a good way to show people the beauty of the culture that you are in.”

Spoorthi spent the day giving people beautiful henna tattoos on their hands, which illustrated her point of spreading her culture’s beauty.

Overall, The day was filled with delicious food, exciting music, and great conversations. Multicultural Day was a day to be remembered, as it created an incredible experience for the whole student body. Thankfully, Darby students can look forward to the many more to come!