The celebration of cultural diversity has long been important to Safiya Hasan, so when it was time for the Lindbergh senior to choose a topic for her Girl Scout Gold Award, she knew right away that it was imperative to incorporate it somehow. 

“I noticed from a young age that there wasn’t a lot of cultural understanding in the Lindbergh District,” Hasan said. “Part of that is just because it’s not as much of a racially and culturally diverse area, but there is a lot of representation at our school that I don’t think people realize is there. I really wanted to make that known and help people become more aware of what’s around them.”

Flash forward months and a lot of hard work later to Lindbergh High School’s first-ever International Week. 

From Feb. 2 to Feb. 7, lunch at LHS was transformed, with each day covering a different topic. The week started with language presentations from Lindbergh students representing their cultural heritage. 

“Monday was focused on language, having people present how to say things in their language and what the origins of their language are,” Hasan said. “We had, I think, almost 15 different languages represented. We had Vietnamese, we had Tagalog, we had three different Indian languages, we had Turkish, we had Kurdish – that was neat.” 

Tuesday, students were encouraged to bring in cultural items – from mini sombreros to pottery – while Wednesday was designated for henna. 

“Wednesday was our big hit day,” Hasan said. “We had three henna artists come in – two of them were Lindbergh High School students, and one of them was a LHS students’ mom who has her own henna business. We had lines almost out the door. 

Foods from around the world were brought in on Thursday, and Friday showcased Lindbergh’s existing affinity groups and language honor societies such as the Muslim Student Association, linguistics club, French Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society and Asian Pacific Islander coalition.

Read more about International Week in the Feb. 27 edition of The Call.