Embracing Multicultural by Salina

Embracing Multicultural by Salina - December 2013 Scholarship Essay

I partake in several extracurricular activities such as Phi Theta Kappa, National Honor Society, Interact, Student Ambassadors, and more because I want to get involved in my school. However, the most influential and passionate club I am involved in is Multicultural Club. I have been an active member of Multicultural since the fourth grade. My first club sponsor was my in elementary art teacher. We went on a field trip to the St. Petersburg International Folk Fair (SPIFFS) where numerous countries set up booths to educate students and community about their heritage, sample authentic cuisine, and watch performances. I went to SPIFFS nearly every year since then, but I noticed there was never a Cambodian booth. Later in 2012, I became Vice President of the Khmer Youth Association of Florida and advocated that we have a Cambodian booth at SPIFFS. For the first time in 15 years Cambodia was represented at the 38th annual folk fair. Here, I helped organize and plan the booth, prepare Cambodian food, and inform students from all over the county and also the community about Cambodia. I was surprised that some people assumed Cambodia was in Africa! It was an immense opportunity to get to wear traditional Cambodian clothes, stamp passports, and answers questions pertaining Cambodia. This was all possible because I was Multicultural Club; I got to reach out and educate my community about my rich heritage.

Multicultural Club has influenced my life dramatically and has developed me into the person I am today. Through Multicultural, I have attended several leadership conferences and meet inspirational people. In fact, my first leadership position was in seventh grade when I became the President of Multicultural. It was a year filled with ambition and failure, but when I look back it I do not regret it one bit. Because I had failed, I learned from my mistakes, I persevered, got up, and moved forward. Eighth grade I was on the chair committee for Multicultural and I observed how things were run to later use down the road. Freshman year I was involved in Spectrum, a club which had merged with Multicultural Club. Here, I had the opportunity to come back to help volunteer at the Pinellas County in Education Day for Leadership Pinellas. In middle school I attended several of these leadership conferences, but in ninth grade I got the chance to come back and help volunteer at the conference to empower middle school students to stand up against bullying and become true leaders.

In eleventh grade, I became Vice President of Multicultural and got to observe the former president Devon Ford who is an International Relations Major now studying abroad as a Rotary foreign exchange student in Slovakia. Devon was a confidant leader, he knew how to speak to his peers and get their attention. I acquired so much useful information from him and noticed how passionate he was about this organization. I believe, unlike some other extracurricular activities, to be a leader of Multicultural Club you have to be passionate and embrace diversity. I took this to heart, and now I am the current president of Multicultural Club at my high school and it has been such an incredible experience so far. I have learned how to handle paperwork, get approval from activities through the high school administration and the college, and also the tedious amount of time it takes to plan meeting and events. With everything going on, I know I have friends, family, and the faculty supporting me. Multicultural is something that I am enthusiastic about; I love learning about all the different cultures and coming together with the student body to respect and embrace diversity. Being involved in Multicultural Club has influenced me in such a way that my life has changed for the better. I have acquired years of valuable leadership skills and become globally aware of the world I live in. I believe global awareness is something necessary to succeed in higher education and the real world. Leading the torch, I am training the two co-vice presidents of Multicultural to take on the responsibility after I leave. When I leave, I want to leave an imprint on my school. However, that’s not the end, like education, multiculturalism is something that’s going to influence me for the rest of my life.