The more I’ve come to Barlow and looked around me, the more I seem to notice how diverse we need to be. Being in an environment with a more diverse community of people benefits everyone. It helps us learn about others and their backgrounds, and educates us about them for various reasons, whether personal or simply because we enjoy it. Learning about the cultures of those around you could benefit you in many ways, such as making connections, becoming more mindful, and unlocking more ways to solve problems. This is why we decided to start an Islander Club, not just any club, but one that helps spread diversity throughout this wonderful community of people. To spread education, to learn about others through different ways of their culture, but not just you watching it through a screen, but in front of you.
Though it’s not just for islanders, it’s for everyone who has taken an interest in our club and would like to join us in learning and sharing our beautiful cultures. Doesn’t matter if you’re an islander or not; we all joined to learn from one another. This is one of many reasons why we decided to start this club. “ Learning about the Pacific cultures is one of the main reasons why we’re starting this,” Mrs. Arnold said. A good community requires various perspectives so we can learn from each other and get to know how we each view things.
Doing this improves decision-making and brings people together. According to Inclusive America, “It creates and implements more inclusive policies and elevates a diverse set of role models.” Having a diverse set of role models that you look up to helps someone do what’s good or bad for them. Having role models in a diverse community could help each and every one of us by helping us lead ourselves to love and accept each other through cultural differences, no matter what background you may have and come from. This is also one of many reasons we started the club.
We’re hoping the club can grow bigger with more people, so the more awareness we can spread about this goal we’re aiming for as a club. Starting off from scratch with just a few people and meeting on Tuesdays every week, and bringing in idea after idea on how to bring awareness to this point, we’d like to bring it to Barlow. “Shows that you are a good representative of Barlow,” says Mrs. Arnold, which is a really good point because there’s always a good amount of diverse groups in one place, though they remain unknown by the town due to not being represented or having a representative. Being represented can really bring together a community because of how welcoming it may feel to others, having them open up more about themselves and the background they may come from. “A community is better when it sticks together, learning and sharing each other’s cultures,” Spencer Alfonis says, which just adds more to how a community is really beneficial when the people, no matter how diverse, come together to learn and honor each other’s cultures.
This is the kind of change we’d like to see our club come to be; to start off as a small influence to a really big influence and inspiration to others. And the more a community becomes diverse, the more beautiful it becomes.
