Kate Ishida is dressed in a traditional Japanese costume while Tina Zhen wears a traditional Chinese dress.
2019 Miss Marianas Shannon Sasamoto poses with MHS students Milagro Palacios and Trenton Deleon Guerrero. Photos by Lori Lyn C. Lirio
MHS teacher and one of the lead organizers of the celebration, Romolo Orsini, said Cultural Day is one of the school’s biggest annual events.
“The goal is to bring awareness to students — to send a message that we are not isolated. We want to bring the world to our campus,” he added.
This year 40 student organizations participated by representing different countries.
“We assigned each club a culture from many parts of the world,” Student Council president Angela Barbo said, adding that the clubs then showcased the cultures they were representing.
“This is also a fundraising event to the student clubs,” she said. “Some of the money they raise goes to the school administration to help the school in its operation expenses and the remaining amount goes to the clubs to buy whatever they need.”
Most of the clubs sold food items from the cultures they represent, and other schools were invited to join the celebration.
Orsini said the Refaluwasch clubs of all the island’s public high schools were among the performers on Cultural Day at MHS.
Saipan Southern High School, he added, has its own cultural clubs. “This is the first collaboration among all three high schools, and we hope that in the coming years the collaboration continues and that we help each other out.”
Kagman High School is the other public high school on Saipan.
