By Steffanie Baruch
Senior Writer

Each year, more and more students come to this campus from foreign countries, bringing their culture and adding to the diversity of school.

It is interesting to look around campus and see how much diversity there is. There are many different traditions and native languages spoken by the students here. The problem is, a lot of students don’t appreciate the various cultures here at school.

“I would hope [the diversity] makes students who have only lived in America more aware of the different cultures our school has, but I am not sure that always happens,” ELD teacher and coordinator Emily Goodheart said.

Being exposed to diversity gives students the chance to learn about different cultures. The foreign exchange program is just one of many programs at school that emphasizes the importance of different cultures.

The yearly One Accord Diversity Assembly, put on by the One Accord club, gives students a chance to show off their unique heritages. But this assembly should not be the only time that students take time to appreciate classmates from other countries. Around the campus, there are a variety of different clubs designed for specific ethnic, cultural and religious groups. Such clubs include Ooh La La, the International Club, FYO Club, Asian Culture Club and Christian Club, to name a few.

“Our goal in Ooh La La is to invite everyone and for them to bring in their different cultures.... Basically, we want to show the rest of the school what our culture is all about,” senior Ana Jauregui said.

While these clubs give students the ability to come together and feel proud of their heritage, they also fail to mix different cultures.

These specific clubs give a sense of isolation because they are not mixing different cultures. Although these clubs are important in uniting students with similar experiences or beliefs, it is important to remember that in order for a school to be unified, there must be a mingling of cultures.

Other schools seem to embrace diversity more than Los Altos. At Pinewood, because the class sizes are much smaller, students become close despite their ethnicity or culture.

“When I was at Pinewood, all races seemed to come together because we were so small of a school. Here at Los Altos, people of different diversities don’t seem to hang out as much together,” senior Jordi Kirsten said.

Yet being a larger school than Pinewood should give students a better opportunity to experience different cultures. This school is very lucky to have such a diverse student body, with many different ways of celebrating all of the cultures. People can either embrace the culture and diversity present at this school or choose to detract from it.