Ashton School taking cultural trip around the world

CUMBERLAND – On Friday night, Ashton School is ready to take visitors on a trip around the world, teaching families about the cultures of India, Colombia, Portugal, Germany, Italy and more.

First-grade parent Famsheera Abdulkhader, who came to the United States from India with her family in October of 2015, said she approached Principal Nidia Karbonik with the idea of a cultural event because the school has students from various countries.

Karbonik noted that the share of students at Ashton who come from other countries has increased from 4 percent three years ago to eight last year to 12 this year.

“Most of them come from India, which is a culture that we don’t really know a lot about, so what we wanted to do was have a cultural night to kind of learn about each other,” Karbonik said. “We’re just starting to realize the diversity that we have.”

Abdulkhader, Karbonik, parents and teachers teamed up to plan Ashton School’s first Cultural Night, a free event that will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday. It will feature dancing, food and crafts from different countries.

“Our goal is to celebrate different cultures, the diversity within our school, and hopefully parents from different cultures will feel more welcome into our school as well,” Karbonik said.

At the Cultural Night will be a showcase of various dance styles, including Irish step dancing, Indian fusion and cumbia, which is Colombian. One student’s grandmother is coming in to teach some Native American drumming and dance steps.

Some of the dancers are students at Ashton School while others come from elsewhere in the community. For example, Rancho Folclorico de Nossa Senhora de Fatima, the Portuguese folklore dance group from Our Lady of Fatima Church, will be there.

Food will include Indian sweets, empanadas and French-Canadian cuisine, Abdulkhader said.

Karbonik added, “The neat thing is we invited parents to kind of plan it with us, so we’re having a lot of families that are volunteering to cook, so they’ll be sampling the food from different countries.”

For crafts, there will be henna, and kids can draw the countries they're from. There will also be a reading room with books about different parts of the world.

“We have a theme that we are different but we are the same,” Abdulkhader said, noting that the event is all about respect, kindness and acceptance.