The diversity assembly is a student-run assembly where culture-based clubs can express their culture through different mediums. This year, the clubs that are participating are Asian American Club (AAC), Black Student Union (BSU), Hispanic Latino Leadership Club (HLLC) and South Asian Student Association (SASA). The assembly is scheduled for March 26 in the new main gym for those who decide to attend.
Co-president of AAC, senior Isabella Lee, said she is one of the many students who help organize the diversity assembly. She has been a part of AAC for four years and president for two, and said her experience as a leader will help in planning and putting together the assembly.
“Since I did this last year,” Lee said. “I got a glimpse to see what planning the assembly was like.”
Alongside her past experience, she said because she is in student government, she is able to communicate better with administrators.
“We kind of have an idea of what goes well with administration and what administration doesn’t like regarding assemblies,” Lee said.
Assistant Principal and Activities Director Kelsey Bakalar said she works with the students to get their ideas through to the administration.
“I feel like my role in all of student activities is to empower,” Bakalar said. “To give them a voice, [and to] give them an opportunity to share their voice.”
She said she helps students when planning the assembly with logistical steps they might not be able to do themselves.
Member of the SASA planning committee, senior Naasif Ahmed, said this is his first year as a board member. Though he has been dancing in the diversity assembly for the past four years, he said he never thought he would become a leader of SASA.
“I got a little bit more involved, [and] I saw that there was a lot more planning that goes into this stuff than I had really thought,” Ahmed said.
He said he enjoys encouraging underclassmen to participate and sharing his culture with others.
“A lot of people that aren’t involved in another culture besides, like American culture, kind of get to see something that they’re not necessarily familiar with and see all the time,” Ahmed said.
President of BSU, Senior Ella Johnson, said she has been the president of BSU for two years and has participated in BSU for four years. Although she said she was worried at the beginning of the year because she would be the sole president, she became accustomed to the responsibilities over time.
“I think this is really good for leadership,” Johnson said. “So this is a really great opportunity for me to learn how to navigate organizing, planning and managing.”
She said the diversity assembly is special because it gives students a space to show off their culture.
“Since our school is pretty big, it’s harder to express ourselves,” Johnson said. “So this is really just a time where we can do that.”
She said the assembly has a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make sure it runs smoothly. Johnson said the first step of planning the assembly was finding out which clubs were going to be participating in the assembly. Afterward, she said they work with their club members and administration to decide which events are going to be a part of the assembly. The events of the assembly must be approved by Bakalar, so Johnson said these meetings usually help leaders from the diversity clubs stay on the same page.
For the diversity assembly, Ahmed said he attended meetings with Bakalar alongside other leaders from SASA and other diversity clubs to help with planning logistical steps. Once everything has been decided, Ahmed said it takes practice and preparation to get it to its final stage.
Lee said everyone should go to the assembly to see all the hard work they put in.
“The diversity assembly is something that you might never see anywhere else. It’s a school student-run assembly, and it’s just really special,” Lee said.
