Festival of Cultures at the City of Loveland Museum

Lacy and Gabriel talked to a visitor about their home country, The Democratic Republic of Congo

This past Thursday evening, Campion Academy’s international students held a Festival of Cultures at the Loveland Museum. The performances, including traditional dances, songs, and slide shows were presented by students from Brazil, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, El Salvador, and Japan. The students also prepared traditional foods and craft booths for the audience.

The students had about ten minutes each to present their countries. "It was very fun. I especially enjoyed watching the Kung Fu from the China presentation because it is very different from our culture," Gabriele, a student from Brazil, explained.

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Kaname, from Japan, showed children how to fold Origami

Sinai shows off her booth from Mexico

While the students were getting ready for their presentations, audience members could walk around the booths and ask questions of the students personally. Sinai Rodriguez, a student from Mexico smiled, "My favorite part was the time before the presentations started. I enjoyed each booth and their foods. A lot of people came to my booth too. I was excited, because they wanted to know about my culture."  

A lot of the students and audience members enjoyed tasting the traditional foods. "I love food!" said Renan from Brazil. "My favorite food was brigadeiro, our traditional sweets."

Campion Academy and the Loveland Museum plan to make this an annual event for the community to enjoy.  They are already making plans for next year to use a larger space to reach a wider audience.

Campion Academy has a diverse and growing international student program.  Currently it is home to 24 international students from six different countries.  Most of the students come to improve their English and earn their high school diplomas here before continuing on to a university in the United States. 

All of the students and the audience members had smiles on their faces throughout the event. “As international students, we know it is very important to respect American culture, but we learned it is also important to share our cultures to the world,” reflected Kaname, senior, from Japan. 

Kaname Kaneiwa, Senior, Guest Contributor with Jill Harlow

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Tommy gave a short presentation highlighting the Qin Dynasty in China