On this coming Saturday, January 28th, the first Groton Cultural Day will be held in the Forum. In previous years, Groton hosted the Chinese New Year festival, where Ms. Jin put a whole evening together in the Forum with a themed dinner and various activities, including dance performances and games. Faculty members Mr. LeRoy, Ms. Jin, Madame Stanton, Ms. Sen-Das, and Ms. Bai came up with the idea of Groton Cultural Day, incorporating all the different cultures of the community on January 28th, the day of the Chinese and Korean New Year. They have reached out to students and faculty that come from different countries and have asked them if they would like to showcase their heritage and culture during this event. Ms. Sen-Das says, “I am excited to be hosting an event of this type for the first time at Groton. It’s wonderful seeing the energy and excitement this is generating amongst the students and faculty involved in its planning: requests to represent countries seemed to grow by the minute!” Simply, Groton Cultural Day is the result of expanding Ms. Jin’s idea of the Chinese New Year Festival to create a full Groton community experience that represents all cultures.

Groton Cultural Day will consist of many different events, beginning with dinner from 5 to 7 pm, which will include foods mostly related to the Chinese New Year. Then, from 7 to 10 pm in the Forum, there will be fifteen to twenty tables, each representing different countries and exhibiting their cultures. Throughout these three hours, these tables will have displays, performances, dance routines, games, trivia, food and different kinds of tastings from around the world, as well as music. Ms. Jin says, “I think Groton Cultural Day is a great way to recognize our school’s diverse culture. I have been thinking about it for a long time as I was hosting the Chinese New Year festival every year. I wanted to see different cultures included in the festival, and I am so happy that we are able to do it this year.”

The faculty members in charge have a lot of ideas on how to make this event an annual tradition, so they’re trying to see how it will run this year. At first, they wanted to make it small, but it’s slowly gotten bigger and bigger, and they want to expand it each year by figuring out what worked well and what didn’t, adding on, making improvements, trying new things in the years to come. At the end of the day, the goal is for all students who come from a different culture to be able to showcase their heritage with this unique opportunity and to show how diverse our community really is. Mr. LeRoy says, “I think it’s really cool that all the different cultures are trying to come together. I would love to see this event as something that everyone’s really excited about, because for students and faculty that come from different areas and cultures, it’s a wonderful chance to show their culture to the rest of the school. The faculty members are hardly the only ones to be excited. Caroline Wilcox ’20 says, “I’m so excited to join and experience this amazing opportunity. I think it will really make the motto ‘diversity and inclusion’ sink in.”

In today’s globalized society, our students and faculty come from all over the world. Groton is becoming a unique and diverse school that emphasizes diversity and inclusion, and this event is one of the efforts to help students feel like this. “We’re such a small school compared to other schools, so we should recognize all these different people that have special cultures and heritages. Let’s see how fun we can make it and enjoy it, since it’s such an invaluable part to our small community,” says Mr. LeRoy. One thing that everyone can do as individuals is to learn about other people’s cultures and backgrounds, understand the differences, and respect them.

When we try to understand each other’s perspectives, we are able to endure and accept each other, enabling us to listen to the people who are around us with an open mind. “I think Groton Cultural Day will give us an opportunity to learn about and enjoy the many different cultures represented at Groton; it will also give many in our community a chance to share customs and traditions that are of significance to them. I’m looking forward to many of us coming together – colleagues across departments and students across forms – to work on a collaborative, creative, and ultimately, fun project,” says Mrs. Sen-Das. Groton Cultural Day is a great opportunity for the students to discover themselves and improve self-awareness by participating in the events, or by hosting a table and talking to peers. By recognizing our own culture while understanding the differences of others, we will be able to experience inclusion firsthand and develop appreciation for our unique community.