Students celebrate diversity with exchange students

Everett Area High School students are learning about diversity through their experiences with two exchange students from Tunisia and Pakistan, among other activities. The students explored differences between their cultures and tackled topics like stereotyping through presentations that the exchange students gave. In the talks, during which Everett students could ask questions of the visiting students, subjects covered were family life, foods, clothing, demographics, languages and more. In addition, the students read several books — including Elie Weisel’s Night, which deals with the Holocaust – and visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, which helped reinforce the importance of understanding and accepting others’ differences. They also completed and presented research projects on different religions from around the world. To synthesize the value of what the students had learned, teacher Matt Otis created a video with interviews where students shared why they felt the experiences were important to them and what they learned.