The Multicultural Fair is entering its third year of existence at Prospect. According to Assistant Principal for Activities and Operations Frank Mirandola, the origin began in the 2021-22 school year when the Prospect admin asked themselves a question that felt important to them: How are we serving EveryKnight? After reflecting on that thought, they came to a stark conclusion about their intentions. 

“It’s not just a saying, it’s not just something you see on the wall,” Mirandola said. “It’s truly the why behind everything we do, and we realized that although we talk about EveryKnight, we really didn’t have anything very purposeful and intentional [at the time] that celebrated the things that made each of us unique.”

After discussions with the students in cultural clubs, as well as the staff members that ran them, Mirandola said that they eventually landed on the idea of an entirely new Prospect event.

“Everyone was talking about ways in which we could continue to highlight the different cultures here at Prospect, and the idea of a fair of celebration got up, and it really kind of materialized pretty fast,” Mirandola said.

At first, the Multicultural Fair was held in April of 2022. However, the admin decided on moving the fair to January for the following years, since Mirandola believes that the lull of winter allows for better traction and participation in the event.

“[January] is just a fun time of year to really highlight so many of the things that make us unique but the things that also unite us,” Mirandola said.

 Although the fair will be similar to the last couple of years, there are a couple differences that Mirandola expressed his excitement about. First off, student involvement in the fair has skyrocketed since 2022. Steadily increasing, the fair started off with 12 cultural groups in 2022, jumping to 20 groups in 2023 and reaching over 30 groups for this year, according to Mirandola. Put into other numbers, Mirandola said that there are already over 100 students registered to run a stand during the celebration. 

Secondly, Mirandola noted that Korean drummers will be performing from 7:45-8:30 a.m. on Jan. 19 before the fair. A musical act isn’t a new occurrence on Multicultural day. In the first year, a Mariachi band performed, and last year a crew of bagpipers played for the students — all with the intention of exposing the school to different cultural music. 

“One of the things we do for the fairs to generate the excitement the morning of is we always have some sort of musical act,” Mirandola said. “[We hire] professional musicians that come in and perform in the commons.”

Among the buzz for this year’s fair was the idea of a Multicultural Week. According to Mirandola, the cafeteria served foods from various cultures throughout the shortened week, as well as playing cultural music in between passing periods and hosting a scavenger hunt to identify placards with the word “Knights” in 30 different languages.  

As a result of the many students participating in the fair this year, a lot of them will be involving themselves for the first time. Senior Linor Saquin-Saile, who is representing the Philippines, is just one of the students who will be actively running a booth for the first time. In the past couple years, she didn’t have the time to plan and set up a booth. However, she had an opportunity to participate this year and decided she wanted to be a part of the event. 

Mirandola noted the increasing enthusiasm for the fair.

“You could see that the excitement is genuine, and is something that has now become a mainstay here at Prospect High School, and you have more and more students wanting to participate in it,” Mirandola said.

Showing dedication to the fair, Saquin-Saile estimates she has spent at least four hours per week since late December helping to plan for the fair. From recruiting seven Filipino students to join the event to helping decorate the booth, Saquin-Saile has gone above and beyond to make sure their set up is admirable. 

Not only did she help with creating the booth, but she also choreographed an entire dance to be performed throughout the day. She looks forward to performing the Tinikling, which is a cultural dance that originated around the 1500s. 

In addition to the dance, she said that the Filipino booth will have more food, more decorations and a playlist to attract students to their stand.

As students interact with her at the booth, Saquin-Saile hopes that she can highlight what it truly means to be Filipino. 

“I want the Filipinos in general to be represented in a good light …” Saquin-Saile said. “[I want] for us to be seen because a lot of us look ethnically ambiguous … Being called Filipino is never a first choice for what people think when they see me.”

Although she sometimes feels as if others misidentify her as being a part of other Asian ethnicities, Saquin-Saile is proud to be a Filipino and hopes to help others understand more about her culture. 

“[I want to be] educating them on traditional cultures and the certain things that we do at home and how we have our own spin on things, as being a Filipino myself,” Saquin-Saile said.

Having done plenty of preparation for the fair, Saquin-Saile strongly recommends that the students who are willing to put in the effort should involve themselves in the Multicultural Fair. For the students who will be visiting the stands, Saquin-Saile advises them to be courteous while walking around.

“[Be] respectful of other cultures and cognizant of your situation and how you deal with other people, especially if you’re walking around the fair, and just [have] an open mind,” Saquin-Saile said.

Looking into the future, Mirandola hopes that one day the Multicultural Fair will shift more towards a year-long celebration than simply just a day or week-long event.

“The vision of the fair is to continue to evaluate the successes and areas of growth, as well as how we could make this even more mainstream than just one day or just one event, or one week for that matter,” Mirandola said. “It’s how we can continue to embed these cultural traits and these cultural celebrations within the school year as a whole.”