International Festival celebrates global diversity

The Bolles Lower School Ponte Vedra Beach Campus community held its second annual International Festival recently, with 16 families presenting cultures and international experiences from 12 countries.

The day began with a globally focused opening ceremony in George Hall, which included a student-led welcome in several languages, many poems shared in multiple languages and a guest appearance from Miss Florida’s Outstanding Teen Aashna Shah, a local Bollywood dancer and author of three children’s books.

At 11:30 a.m., the students began rotations through campus classrooms, visiting the parent cultural presenters who shared demonstrations with students throughout the rest of the day. The Bulldogs collected stickers for their passports as they traveled around the globe, with some classes logging more than 46 hours of “flight time.”

International Festival presenters and the countries/cultures they represented included:

• The Callaway family, Argentina — World Cup activity and mate tasting
• The Hayward family, Bosnia and Herzegovina — Coloring sheet
• The Sasseen family, Ethiopia — Alphabet writing workshop
• The Gruenbaum family, Israel — Artifact dig
• The Johnson family, Chile — Easter Island figurines
• The Ayaz and Kahanda families, Sri Lanka — Games
• The Barakat family, Egypt — Costume station photo wall and hieroglyphic game
• The Patel family, India — Henna tattoos
• The Slaughter and Hejazi families, Iran — New year egg painting
• The Nightingale and Martinez families, Mexico — Dance lessons and gritos
• The Vo and Iuliano families, Vietnam — Currency activity
• The Libby family, United Kingdom — British word bingo