Van Nuys High School is home to multiple students and teachers from different cultural backgrounds ranging from North and South America to Asia or Africa. The Multicultural Club gives opportunities to show the many cultures of the world.

Junior Mehjabeen Mashiyat, the president of the club, explains its overall purpose.

“The purpose of the Multicultural Club is to promote cultural diversity and celebrate different cultures along with learning about them,” she said. “The main goal for our club is to successfully organize the Multicultural Showcase in which we have opportunities for dance performances to show off their cultural pride.”

The Multicultural Showcase is held in the auditorium after school in April.

The club originated from a different club which mostly focused on showcasing different cultures through cooking.

“Last year I had a club called the Foreign Cooking Club whose main goal was also to spread cultural diversity but through food,” Mashiyat said. “My idea for this club came from the Foreign Cooking Club but this time its purpose is to bring out cultures and promote diversity with dances.”

To even plan for dances of showcasing culture, the Multicultural Club would need a sponsor. Spanish Teacher Miguel Becerra Jr. is the sponsor of the Multicultural Club.

“I chose to sponsor this club because it’s very interesting that a lot of different cultures can come together.” Mr. Becerra said. “Something that happens through the Multicultural Club is that they can share not only dishes, but other aspects of culture. There were some things that I had no idea existed.”

Now with a sponsor, in order to keep a club running meetings and a board is needed. The club president shared why they keep working to keep the club running in the first place.

“We keep the club running as all of our board members as all of our board members are very interested in making the Multicultural Showcase a success,” Mashiyat said. “We’re all from different cultures and backgrounds, bringing them together all in a big performance is what matters to us and gets us to keep the club running!”

By the looks of it, the Multicultural Club brings together all kinds of cultures and backgrounds to celebrate and enjoy with different events like the Multicultural Showcase.