For 10 years, South has hosted the World Cultures Fair, a gathering of various cultural clubs at South, Esther Bowen, Multilingual Learners Teacher and World Cultures Fair Coordinator said.

On Oct. 24, clubs will share their culture through dance, cultural foods, language, and music, Bowen said.  The World Cultures Fair was created for students to learn more about different cultures and feel that their culture is represented in South’s community, Bowen said.

“It’s important for students to see a reflection of their culture in the school,” Bowen said. “To know different cultures is [for cultural traditions] to be honored and celebrated.”

The clubs that participate in the fair give students of different cultural backgrounds a place to feel like they belong, Sejal Schullo, Psychology Teacher and South Asian Student Association (SASA) Sponsor, said.

“The fair gives people who are not of a particular cultural background access to learning about different cultures,” Schullo said. “There are no clubs [at South] where you have to be of a specific culture to belong.”

The World Cultures Fair is open to not only students, but also to families and cultural groups outside of South’s community, Schullo said. Even students who are also not part of South’s cultural clubs can participate in the fair by sharing their culture from their traditions and ideas.

“I wish more [South students] would get involved and come to see their classmates’ cultural, geographic, and religious backgrounds that their community is made up of, even if they are not directly connected to it,” Schullo said.

Junior Oyuka Battulga, Mongolian Club (MASO) Member, strives to express her Mongolian culture to South through the World Cultures Fair, Battulga said. Wanting her community to feel the pride as well as she does, she believes the fair is a way of bonding between different cultures.

“My goal [for the World Cultures Fair] is to showcase Mongolian culture to people who may not know much about it,” Battulga said. “[South] has a big Mongolian population, so learning about our peers and their cultures is going to be a big step forward [towards] understanding one another.”

Bowen believes that Glenview is a town with rich diversity, emphasizing the importance in students seeing a reflection of their culture in the school, such as that they feel honored and celebrated. By showing different aspects of their culture, students are able to culturally inform others and demonstrate their pride, Bowen said.

”[The World Cultures Fair] is about celebrating what makes us who we are,” Bowen said.