I-Fair shines a light on cultural awareness

by ·

  • Caribbean nations
    Two freshmen present the Caribbean nations.
  • South American countries 1
    Sophomore Eleanor Park and her presentation on South American countries.
  • East Asian countries 1
    Sophomore Aline Cisneros by a presentation on East Asian countries.
  • East Asian countries 2
    East Asia.
  • East Asian countries 3
    Three freshmen present East Asia.
  • China 1
    China.
  • South African countries
    South African countries represented by three sophomores.
  • East African countries
    East Africa.
  • West African countries
    West Africa.
  • West and central African countries 1
    Freshmen Gina Salamas and Lily Curran present west and central African countries.
  • Central American countries 1 + South American Countries 2
    Central America.
  • Moldova
    Laura Vesco (freshman) and Valeriya Vesco (junior) representing Moldova.
  • Persian Gulf countries
    Persian Gulf countries.
  • British Isles
    Freshman Alex Moskal (right) and the British Isles.
  • The Balkan States
    Freshmen Joe Baretti and Kyle Lejman.
  • France and the Benelux countries
    Three freshmen and their presentation on France and its neighbors.
  • The Baltic States
    Three freshman girls pose by their Baltic States presentation.
  • Central European countries
    Central European countries.
  • Switzerland, Austria, and Luxembourg
    Switzerland, Austria, and Luxembourg.
  • Southern European countries
    Freshman Damien Brown and his presentation on Southern European countries
  • Scandinavia
    Freshmen Cristina Laudando and Koty Hall representing Scandinavia.
  • Central American countries 2
    Central America.
  • The Phillipines
    The Phillipines.
  • Mexico
    Mexico.
  • South Korea
    From left to right: Juniors Kristine Oh and Hannah Kim, senior Ashley Jun, and junior Lauren Jang representing South Korea.
  • Japan
    Japan.
  • China 2
    China.
  • Germany
    Senior Eric DeVito and junior Michelle Meister.
  • Pakistan
    Senior Saara Khan paints body art on freshman Max Winestock.
  • Filipino tinikling performance
    Tinikling, a traditional Filipino dance.
  • Filipino tinikling performance
    Tinikling, a traditional Filipino dance.
  • Presentation of the Mexican flag.
  • Pink traditional Indian dress.
  • Traditional Indian dance.
  • Traditional Indian dance.
  • Traditional Indian dance.
  • Chinese culture
    Chinese culture.
  • Traditional Chinese clothing
    Senior Dhruv Patel and sophomore Hailey Schimpf presenting traditional Chinese clothing.
  • Traditional Indian dance.
  • Traditional Indian dance.
  • Traditional Indian dance.
  • Traditional Indian dance.
  • K-pop dance 1
    From left to right: senior Jessica Paik, juniors Hannah Kim and Kristine Oh, and senior Ashley Jun.
  • K-pop dance 2
    K-pop dance.
  • Traditional Indian dance.
  • Traditional Indian clothing
    From left to right: seniors Aman Goyal and Nisha Shah introduce Reshma Antony led by Sachin Jindal.
  • Traditional Indian clothing
    From left to right: seniors Aman Goyal and Nisha Shah introduce juniors Charmi Patel and Hitesha Savaliya.
  • Traditional Indian clothing
    Senior Shreena Patel reacts to senior Devan Patel.
  • Traditional Indian clothing
    Sophomore Pooja Shah and junior Rohan Antony.
  • Traditional African dress
    From left to right: Seniors Aman Goyal and Nisha Shah introduce sophomore Favour Samuel.
  • Mexican dress
  • Traditional Indian clothing
    From left to right: seniors Aman Goyal and Nisha Shah introduce sophomore Parth Patel who spins senior Aayushi Patel.
  • Traditional Indian dance
  • Traditional Indian dance.
  • Traditional Indian dance by seniors.
  • Traditional Indian dance by seniors.
  • Live band performance
    From left to right: seniors Nathan Markiewicz, Johnny Salgado, Vince Savarino and Holden Symonds perform in their band, Johnny and the Jazz Tags.
  • Guitar performance
    Freshman Laura Vesco performing on her guitar.
  • Traditional Indian dance
    From left to right: seniors Ashley Sachdeva, Kyathi Patel, Nisha Shah, and Sonia Patel.
  • Traditional Indian dance
    From left to right: seniors Tirth Patel, Dhruv Patel, Kirtan Sapra, Aman Goyal, and Paritosh Joshi performing a traditional Indian dance.
  • Traditional Indian dance
    Juniors Meenakshi Parihar (background), Priyana Kumar (center), and Unnati Patel (foreground) all pose during a traditional Indian dance.
  • Filipino tinikling performance
    Tinikling, a traditional Filipino dance.
  • All performers take a bow at the end of the show
    All performers take a bow at the end of the I-fair night show.

Displays of about 30 countries–as well as dance performances and a fashion show of traditional dresses–were presented at Conant’s annual International Fair (I-Fair) on Friday, April 22.

I-Fair is sponsored by the Cultural Awareness club, and many stands were run by World History and Geography students who had spent time researching and learning about the countries they chose to represent.

Senior Paritosh Joshi, a participant in one of the traditional Indian dances, explained that I-Fair is important “because I believe that it represents a wide variety of cultures and allows people to understand a lot more about a variety of different things like dancing and traditional food.”

Senior Lawrence Torres, representing the Philippines, wanted to take part in I-Fair to “show people what the Philippine culture is and what it’s about, since not a lot of people know about it.”

A main focus of this event was to shed light on countries many students aren’t very knowledgeable of, like smaller countries in Europe and Asia.

Representing South Korea, senior Jessica Paik thinks that cultural awareness is important because she wants people to understand that “even though [South] Korea is a small country, it [and other similar countries] has its own unique culture that has a big influence in the US.” She cited K-Pop and Korean food as Korean influences on America.

See the gallery above for photos of each country represented during the school day, as well as pictures of the night show.

Tags:

Srinivasan Iyer

Srinivasan Iyer is a news reporter and photographer on the Conant Crier news team. This is his first year as a staff member. He is also involved in HOSA, plays piano in the Jazz Ensemble, is the president of Tri-M Music Honor Society and plays on the tennis team. Apart from writing, he enjoys drawing, playing the flute and composing music for piano.

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *