Introduction

To NCSSM Administration,

The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics was founded upon the vision of establishing a prestigious high school that would amalgamate prospective students from all regions in North Carolina. Upon this foundation in 1980, many extracurriculars, clubs, sports, and dreamless possibilities were organized and created by the students at the school. One of which was the “fest.” This included Africa fest, Asia fest, and Latin America fest. These fests were created in a time when the students had dreams of one day being able to represent their various backgrounds to the student body, families, staff, and peers, and thus they became legacies over the years. The cultural clubs that were in charge of these student-led organizations designated officers to plan out the year that would lead up to the huge event and would ultimately leave behind a legacy to the new unicorns.

It was recently brought to our attention that the administration was planning on combining the different cultural fests into one big “International Fest.” As officers of 3 major cultural clubs at this school, we were initially shocked that we were not involved in the decision-making process. Hearing the news with no idea it was going to occur was very detrimental to our planning processes. We were elected during our junior years and accepted the greater challenge of planning and creating the most amazing festivals that would live up to the expectations of the long line of grand-seniors.

We understand that many people were concerned with the organization and overcrowding, but that amount of worry is not equivalent to our amount of worry that we will have in the present and future. These handed-down fests have always been a cherished tradition and long looked forward to, but an international fest, while celebrating a world of cultures, will not be able to truly celebrate the distinctive features of each cultural group. Thus, ACC, HCC, and HOPE have come together to create a list of reasons for why we desperately want to continue the tradition of hosting our own fests.

List of Reasons and Explanations:

It is no longer student led. A major point of the festivals is teaching students leadership and letting them have the experience of organizing the different festivals. International festival will take away opportunities from students to organize and collaborate with each other. While an international fest might also allow for students to work together, it does not allow for the full collaborative spirit that the individual fests would allow; an international fest would only limit the number of student groups that can participate and thus the overall number of students that can work together.

No student input was taken into consideration when deciding on combining the three festivals into one bigger festival. These festivals were created by students, with the help of administration, for the purpose of representing their individualistic and diverse cultures. By combining these festivals into one, the students innovation and initiation of these festivals is practically regression on the work these students have put in the previous decades.

The leaders of multicultural and dance clubs have already devoted hours upon hours of their time over the summer in preparation for the individual fests. It is unfair to trivialize the work that these students have already done. By not allowing all acts to be a part of this this new “international fest,” a lot of work will have gone to waste which will discourage some future leaders from ever attempting to put on an act again.

International festival will take away the representation from various nations and minorities, especially those not very well represented within the NCSSM community. An international fest would not be able to accommodate all the groups that usually participate in Asia Fest, Latin America Fest, and Africa Fest, and thus representation will ultimately be lost.

Asiafest hosts a variety of acts that represent different countries including: India, Korea, the Philippines, China, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and many more. By combining all the festivals together, many of these countries will lose representation and not be able to have their acts in the International Festival. Only the larger acts will be accepted which is not fair to cultures that don’t have as large of a population within the school community.

Latin America Fest also represents a variety of countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Honduras but also represents Latino cultures within the United States.

Africa Fest represents all Afro-centric cultures including African-American, various countries on the African continent, and also Afro-Caribbean.

Student led fests is where all of our work goes into. ACC, HCC, and the HOPE would have nothing to work towards if there culminating event was taken way. With AsiaFest already having two shows on one day, an International Fest would result in an even bigger turn out, thus limiting the number of individuals who are able to actually watch the show in the auditorium.

We now know that previous competition might have been taxing on our sponsors, but knowing that now, we will not have a highly competitive attitude but will instead be more organized in order to reduce the stress for sponsors and techies. HCC, ACC, and HOPE coming together to maintain our ability to perform our individual cultural fests is representative of how this new year of club officers and members will work together to support each others’ clubs.

Those who run technical theater do not consider having different festivals as more “work” but as an opportunity to put to practice their various techie skills. They don’t have many opportunities to apply their tech skills and enjoy it.

“We agree that we enjoy teching the shows, and that we would rather have three fests than one” - Devin Halvorson and Darby Madewell, Class of 2015, Stage Director and Assistant Stage Director

If, in the future, faculty and students think having one international fest is the ultimate way to represent the various cultures at our school, it would be extremely beneficial to notify the new officers during their junior year so they can make changes accordingly. We deem that since we were not notified in advance we should not be forced to create an International Festival this year. However, still, as a small representative group of the student body we are not fond of the idea overall and hope that it would not be continued for the upcoming classes because of the reasons given above.

A quote from previous ACC officers: “Asia fest is a legend. I was going to go back to watch my juniors put on their own Asia Fest. It could not have ended with my year. I will be heartbroken” -Vany Nguyen, Class of 2014

“Countless hours go into preparation for all of the fests. Through these shows, new leaders emerge, and many friendships are formed. The fests are a way for students at Science and Math to not only represent their cultures, but also to express themselves through art, music, and dance. Taking the individual shows away would be taking away a huge chunk of performing arts at NCSSM. Please keep the individual fests. They have become a part of NCSSM for years now.” -Mona Amin, Class of 2014

“Dear Unis, I understand that NCSSM is planning on combining all three cultural festivals into one big international one. Hopefully, this is intended to unite all cultural groups found on NCSSM's wonderfully diverse campus. However, in my opinion, this is not the way to accomplish this. The three festivals are some of the highlights of students' time at NCSSM, they definitely were for me. There is immense pride and hard work that goes into planning each of the fests, and combining it into just one would diminish the effect. One of the biggest problems that arises when planning fests is how to adequately represent an entire culture in just 90 minutes, and combining them into one festival would do a huge injustice to all of our cultures. My advice to you is rather than combining the festivals, is to work together as a student body to get a diverse group of individuals performing and involved with EACH of the different festivals, instead of the "each culture to their own fest" method that tended to occur. What better way of educating and exposing students to other cultures than by having them dedicate energy, time, and pride to an amazing experience?” - HCC Officer Anabel Medrano '13

And from a previous HCC officer: “LAF is a vital part of the NCSSM experience. We MUST represent the Latino minority in the school because Latin America has such as unique and beautiful history that fuses Native American, European and African cultures!” -Gerardo Alvarado, Class of 2014

Conclusion

For this, we need your support. Let us unite as one true student body and stand up for who we are, and who we represent. Stand together with us to be able to hold our traditional festivals and accept the greater challenge of educating and sharing our culture with the NCSSM community.

Support

The following groups are in support of this petition:

Anime Club

Akwe Go

Asian Cultures Club

Bailamos

Bhangra

Coalition of Nonpartisans

Communication, Uniqueness, Thought, and Expression

Enthalpy Breakdance

Group for Liberal Students

Heritage, Opportunity, Progress, and Education

Hispanic Cultures Club

I Came, I Danced, I Conquered

Jewish Cultures Club

Korean Cultures Club

K-Wave

Legacy

Multicultural Association for Indian Awareness

NIA

Raas

Student Government Association

Tinikling

Technical Theatre Crew

United Conservatives of NCSSM