Opening up the World: IJ Holton hosts first Culture Day to celebrate the school's diversity
Feb. 28—Students at IJ Holton Intermediate School were able to look through an open window of culture as part of the school's first Culture Day on Friday.
Throughout the day, students alternated between stations where they learned about backgrounds of the district's success coaches, providing the students with firsthand experiences about their cultures.
"This is a great way for our students to see who these people are at our school that are seen during conferences and things like that," said Colin Zidlicky, IJ band teacher as well as the lead for the schools Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program. "If you actually look into the school, over 60% are non-white students. There are a ton of cultures that are unique to Austin that kids don't really know about."
Zidlicky said he conceived of the idea of hosting a Cultural Day at the beginning of this school year and started planning for it in January under the PBIS umbrella, which are interactive activities that act as celebrations for the students.
Zidlicky went on to say that it was important in bridging gaps between students, cultures and even the success coaches themselves.
"They are employees of the school already," Zidlicky said. "They know what's going to be age appropriate. It's a way of engagement for them. Success coaches represent the most saturation of cultures."
While Friday's event literally opened up the world for students through the success coaches, Zidlicky said it was also a positive opportunity for the coaches themselves to share of their backgrounds with the students.
One of those success coaches was Amanda Schramm, a member of the Santee Dakota nation, in Knox County, Nebraska, west of Niobrara.
During her presentation, she shared Native American history as well as regalia she brought with her to share with the students.
"It's such a wonderful opportunity," Schramm said in being able to share the history of her people.
In sharing her history, Schramm didn't shy away from talking about the challenges her people have faced through the years, including those of her own family.
She said it was important to keep talking about it in order to keep that history alive.
"If you have to keep everything private it's all going to disappear," Schramm said.
Despite this being just the first year, Zidlicky hopes that it will continue to be an annual thing. Staff will take a step back to analyze how the day goes to see how it might fit into the future.
Regardless, Zidlicky said that the support from administration has been key in supporting the first go-round.
"Where the administration could have said no right away, they said this is an awesome day. Let's make this happen," he said.
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