Lily Peng, Sports Editor: Annual Culture Week kicked off with the “What is Culture?” assembly and lunchtime booths featuring cuisine from 16 cultures in the Aux Gym on Tuesday. 

During lunch, students tasted a variety of foods, ranging from Malaysian baked cassava cakes to Bulgarian tikvenik, made from layers of phyllo pastry and pumpkin. Each booth also featured a tri-fold, which introduced traditional customs and cuisine from their culture.

Aden Liu (10): Food is like the easiest way we can communicate our culture, so I take pride in that. I saw a lot of people just looking really curious about the foods that we had because, with Taiwan, it’s mostly like small snacks and history food. Just the thought of sharing my culture with other people is great. 

Lily: The booth presenters from student groups like Japanese National Honor Society and Jewish Affinity Group set up their stations by preparing the food and putting up their posters during morning office hours.

Charlene Li, Assistant Sports Editor: Student Diversity Coalition (SDC) organized Culture Week. Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Patricia Burrows and English teacher Christopher Hurshman led the assembly, which discussed how culture can influence people’s everyday interactions and perspectives. 

Burrows opened by reviewing last year’s “Mosaic of Cultures” presentation about what shapes a culture. They then asked the audience to consider how their environment influences the way they view certain scenarios, like taking off shoes at home and talking loudly in hallways. 

Jeanette Fernandez, SDC and Latin X advisor: We want to make sure that students understand that when we speak about culture, there’s a lot to it. And you know, you might hear someone say, “ I don’t feel like I have culture.” 

Yes, you do. There’s a lot that you may not know, just like what Mr. Hurshman and Mr. Burrows were talking about. That is part of your culture. Harker has a culture here, and it doesn’t have anything to do with race. But we do have our culture that may be different than another school. 

Charlene: Student representatives National Chinese Honor Society (NCHS), Slavic Student Association and Korean American Student Association also presented stories about their cultural traditions with hair washing and addressing teachers.

Hanz Baek (11): There’s this thing called banchan. Even before you sit down, when you put your name for a reservation at home, at a restaurant, they’ll have a huge assortment of banchan, whether it’s like kimchi or cucumber salad or  rice paper. They’ll have it all around you. But whenever a waiter sees that you’re running out, they immediately refill. And they typically don’t even ask. A really good part about Korean culture is always just trying to give back to people eating.

Charlene: Culture week will continue with performances from students and food bites from local restaurants next Monday.