Aiken Scholars Academy students hosted a celebration for Hispanic Heritage Month October 15.
Starting Sept. 15, students participated in a Traditional Game Day, Latino Trivia and Hispanic Art Day. On Friday, the celebration included traditional Hispanic dishes and music.
“For us, we are a very small population so we’re like a family here at ASA and we want all of our students to feel like they’re welcomed, and they’re recognized for who they are,” said Aiken Scholars Academy Principal Martha Messick.
The celebration was led by junior and student vice-president Isabella Peralta. She said it was good to receive support from Messick, student council advisor Sharonda Jacobs and student council and committee.
“I feel it’s very important to have this type of event mainly for the purpose of educating and also representing the diversity in the whole nation, and just how that diversity relates to our local community because it may be hard sometimes to see, but it’s very diverse here in Aiken too,” Peralta said.
The event took a month and a half to organize as students and families made dishes for everyone to try as a part Friday’s celebration. Some of the dishes were arroz con gandules, tamales, mantecadito cookies, empanada cookies, flan, chicharrones de pollo, pastelitos de carne, tres leches and butter rum caramels and sandwichitos de mezcla.
“I hope that the students really take away that cultures can be really including and inclusive to all different people, so that they can enjoy it and also be a part of the music, the food and learn the language,” Peralta said.
Aiken Scholars Academy encourages students to be leaders and to live by the scholar attributes, which are service, curiosity, ownership, lifelong learning, advocacy and resilience. Students owning who they are and their culture and honoring that is a great thing, Messick said.
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