Fuller brings families together with Culture Night
The halls of Fuller Elementary School were buzzing with activity and the scents of global cuisine for Culture Night.
The April 2 event highlighted the cultures represented in the classrooms of the schools by the students or the teachers.
Monica Molinar, the emergent bilingual director, was thrilled to see a way for so many families to find common ground.
“Food transcends language,” she said. “So many of our families are not able to communicate through English yet, but they can communicate through food.”
Fuller Culture Night captured part of what makes public education special, Superin- tendent Dr. Shannon Saylor said, building the sense of community.
“That’s what public schools are great for, is just building communities within our community,” she said. “... We don’t choose our kids; we don’t want to choose our kids. ... We accept them all and want all to come and be a part of our school, because we do great things here.”
Corey Tipton, whose son Oliver Tipton is a Fuller kindergartener, loved the chance to have his son explore other cultures.
“It gives him an opportunity to really embrace himself in different cultures and see the different foods and learn a little bit about the different places,” Corey said. “And I’m learning a lot more than he is. I think he’s just enjoying the food.”
Oliver even picked up some sauerkraut from firstgrade teacher Ashleigh Fisher’s Germany table and let her know he liked it.
Fisher’s parents own and run a German market in her hometown of Muenster, which she was proud to represent.
She told her students “if they tried the potato salad and the sauerkraut, they could get a Jackie Buck for being brave, because I know that kraut’s not very popular [with kids].”
Although her family came to the U.S. generations ago, they are still closely tied to their roots.
“We live in a German town, we run a German meat market, we go to German Fest,” she said.
When Fisher realized there were pork products in many of the items she brought, she made sure visitors to her table knew in case their beliefs or dietary restrictions prohibit them from eating pork, which was appreciated by several visitors to her table.
Nearby, Anita Dehal shared her Jamaican heritage with her fellow Fuller families and to explore other cultures as well.
“Just knowing the impact Jamaica has had on international culture with sports, music, television—... it just makes me feel proud to be here today to say that I am Jamaican,” she said.
The world was well represented at Fuller.
Marvelia Torres brought tacos because her son, Tori Navarro, loves them.
Representing Mexico mattered to them.
“It’s a great experience, especially in the times we live in nowadays,” she said. “I think it’s great for everyone, the whole community, to see the diversity there is out there, especially because our kids interact with each other,” she said.
Second-grade teacher Carlos Vasquez stopped by, commenting about how the event felt like EPCOT’s World Showcase.
Fuller ESL teacher Lisa Brown, who organized the event for the second time in its three-year run, loved how everything came together.
“It’s overwhelmingly wonderful,” she said. “I just love seeing the families get so excited about showing off their food and sharing their culture and just things from their home, and then they meet other families that they didn’t even know were here. It’s just all around amazing.”
At the April 2 event, families from Venezuela connected and formed a quick friendship.
“They got to meet,” Brown said. “Our teacher from West Elementary, she got to come over and interact with one of our Brazilian families here who didn’t want to do it alone.”
An Iranian family came out, too, to share their culture with the Fuller family.
“We are just here to share our culture, our food, how the folk customs are in our country,” Bobby Riahi said.
He added that his daughter is a first grader in Fuller.
“We’re all just part of one community here,” he said.
