BROOKINGS – The first-ever Brookings High School Diversity Fair event will be held from 4-7 p.m. next Saturday, Feb. 29, in the auxiliary gym on the south side of the school.
The event will host a variety of organizations that represent the various cultural and diverse populations within BHS and the greater Brookings community. There will be several different booths along the perimeter of the gym, with a center stage for speakers and performances.
Business law and robotics teacher Dan Berg has worked with the PTA in getting the event organized and contacting organizations to attend the event. Berg said there will be many different organizations there, but there are still available spots open for the community.
Currently the confirmed booths are Brookings Human Rights Commission, Brookings School District Diversity Committee, Brookings High School SAGA (Sexuality and Gender Alliance), Brookings High School Spanish Teachers and Students, Brookings Police Foundation (gay and lesbian liaisons), Tingting He (Chinese community), Dr. Shafiqur Rahman (Muslim community). The PTA will have a refreshments table, and the BHS Orchestra will perform at the start of the event.
“Our whole purpose in doing it is to just celebrate who we are as a people and as a community in this school,” Berg said.
“It was initiated in some conversations that we had, just trying to increase our knowledge of all diversities that exist in our community and how we can, as a school, do something about it,” BHS Principal Paul von Fischer. “Because it’s one thing to be knowledgeable about this – and we can push information out, but there was a wish to create an event – to create something so that we could experience these things.”
Berg said that his impetus for creating the event was due to his classroom demographics.
“I’m in my room teaching and I look out and this is one of the first schools where I’ve had such a diverse population of students – gay, straight, black, white, red, Muslim, Christian, you name it – I see it in my classroom,” Berg said.
“And I’ve been teaching for 28 years, coming to Brookings for the past seven, I’ve never had such a diverse classroom since I started here; which makes it fun because from that we can learn different things from each other, and people can – with different experiences and ideas – bring that into the classroom. Whether it’s business law or robotics, that’s what we do, and it’s just really fun,” he added.
“I would say that I would really like to have people feel like – because I believe they are open – but I want people to feel that communication lines are open,” von Fischer said. “Because I know that there are groups that feel marginalized, and people that don’t feel like they don’t have a place, and I hope that through this and opening the doors to the school, that we will find an understanding and open communication in conversation.”
Both von Fischer and Berg wanted to stress the importance that anyone wanting to attend the event or wishing to partake in setting up a booth must not be “derogatory, offensive, or incite division between cultures.”
For more information or for those who would like to participate in the event, email Berg at Daniel.Berg@k12.sd.us or PTA President Laurie Dicke at laurie.dicke@sdpta@gmail.com.
Contact Matthew Rhodes at mrhodes@brookingsregister.com.
