Sage Hill students gathered in the gym on the morning of Apr. 15 for opening remarks of the 10th annual Multicultural Symposium.
The assembly started with speeches by SAME’s (Sage Advocates for Multicultural Education) three co-chairs, seniors Aisha Mushin, Shaurya Mittal, and Isaac Alegria. They shared personal stories related to SAME’s main goals: to help the student body be seen, heard, and valued.
Sophomore Eviana Branch substantiated these themes by presenting her spoken word poem, “Monachopsis,” on ways she connects with her adoptive family through abstract mediums, especially music.
This year’s theme, Making Waves, shows how a single idea or action can grow into ripples of change and inspiration. Ultimately, these waves of change can push to change people’s worldview and eventually impact their community or even broader society.
Junior Sienna Burnette, who is a part of the SAME event committee–the group of SAME members whose duties are mainly to plan out Multicultural Symposium– shared how the group decided on a theme.
“The other SAME members and I came together one Saturday morning in January for a few hours, and [ideas such as] kaleidoscope and books [were thrown around]. Ultimately, [SAME] decided on Making Waves both for the calming visuals of the ocean and the concept of making waves of change in our communities,” said Burnette.
The symposium hosted a total of 28 different seminars ranging from Anime to Artificial Intelligence, with some led by faculty and others by students.
“I came up with this idea because Bollywood has such a big impact on Indian culture and encompasses so many [artistic mediums] such as music and dance. Outside of India, Bollywood also has an impact on Western culture, which matches with the theme seminar titled “Lights, Camera, Culture: Bollywood’s Ripple Effect.”
On the other hand, most students spent the entire day going to three seminar sessions. Freshman Tiffany Hon attended the “Making Waves Through Anime: Exploring Unanswered Questions” seminar.
“I learned about the meaning behind different anime and how they are linked to real world problems,” said Tiffany.
Her takeaway reflected the larger purpose of the day: multicultural understanding starts with curiosity and grows through waves of communication.
