ASB celebrated a plethora of diverse cultures by hosting various lunchtime activities for Intercultural Week from Feb. 14-17.

Student activities commissioner and senior Stella Jung led the event, which included pinning student’s cultures on a world map, playing musical chairs, passing out food samples and several cultural club performances. Some of those club performances included the K-pop/C-pop club.

“We wanted it to highlight different aspects of culture – music, dance and food – so that students are able to appreciate the variety of cultures we have at Portola and celebrate our diversity,” Jung said. “I hope students have a sense of pride in their culture and are able to appreciate others as well.”

ASB had to undergo preparation in order to finalize the event in order to finalize intercultural week and bring the prominent cultures onto campus. This was the first year where ASB brought different cultural clubs to perform as those plans were not continued due to COVID.

“I think the goal is twofold,” ASB adviser Emily Sheridan said. “One is for students to maybe be exposed to cultures that they might not have known about before, and the other goal would be that if someone is interested in joining one of those, like intercultural clubs, or didn’t realize that there was a community for them on campus, that maybe they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, hey, I didn’t realize that there were a lot of other people who have my same culture are here.’”

Clubs commissioner and senior Shaun Baek reached out to different clubs to see if they were interested in putting together a dance/performance for the lunchtime event. For the Kpop/Cpop club, they performed to popular K-pop music like “Enemy” by KARD.

“I am not Korean; I’m Mexican, but our club is a fun space to be in because it brings people of all cultures together to celebrate music that we all enjoy,” K-pop/C-pop club member and junior Ayanna Correa said. “My fellow members and I get a hands-on experience in learning about a part of Korean culture, and we hope to spread those experiences by performing for our peers.”