Cardinal Gibbons is made up of 1,577 students. Among these, 20.2 percent are minorities, and  because of this, the Gibbons community works hard to value and give students the chance to demonstrate their cultures. 

One way in which this is done is through the Multicultural Festival. 

The Multicultural Festival is an after-school celebration of different cultures, allowing students to show off what they know about their culture by participating in dances, wearing traditional clothes, playing music, or even cooking some delicious food from their country. 

There were 40 countries that were represented at the festival. This festival not only allows students to represent their own culture, but it also allows them to learn more about fellow classmates’ culture.  

Sophomore Avrie Reynard was born in the United States, but her parents are both from different countries. Her mom is from Honduras and her dad is from the Netherlands. 

Reynard explained that she is able to express different cultures at home every day because her parents try their hardest to incorporate their cultures into her everyday life by speaking Spanish at home and cooking authentic foods such as tamales. 

“I try to speak Spanish as much as possible because I love speaking to my mom in Spanish and she loves speaking to me in Spanish, especially because she doesn’t have a lot of people to talk to in Spanish while she is here,” said Reynard. 

 Reynard wanted to bring more acknowledgement to her culture because it’s often forgotten and overlooked. Her participation in the festival included telling people about it and helping Ms. Cinthia Valverde setup. She also set up her own table where she had a spread of foods and pottery laid out, and remained close to the table along with her mom so that they could talk about Honduras and educate the people who wanted to learn more. 

“My favorite thing about my culture is the importance of family and the strong bond shared between us. Everyone is so connected to each other and although there is a large distance separating us, everyone puts in the effort to stay connected with one another,” Reynard said.

An additional thing Reynard did to express her culture was that she wore a custom-made dress made by her cousin in Honduras. This further exemplified the importance of family in her culture and the commitment each person has to each other. 

Chikaluoge Anene-Umeh is from Nigeria and said that his favorite thing about his culture is both the food as well as the way they speak.