From China to Chile, students with ancestry from various backgrounds can be found strolling Brooklyn Tech’s hallways. This diverse student body holds many customs, cultures, and traditions that are celebrated and represented at the school’s annual Culture Fair. Students gathered in the cafeteria after school for a rich, global pageant of clothing, food, music, and other festivities.
The event had previously been postponed twice due to weather issues and incomplete planning, but at last, on February 9th, the cafeteria was filled with various flags, posters, and performances from around the world, along with booths from different cultural clubs displaying their heritages through various crafts and snacks. In addition to the decoration, students dressed in traditional garments throughout the school day and arrived at the fair in a stylish parade representing their culture.
The Tech Step Team, the Lady Dragons, and Team Naach, a South Asian dance club, were some of the student groups that performed at the fair. Advisors, captains, and their members worked tirelessly for months to make sure their performances were at their best.
“All of our time preparing for the culture show, we were actually preparing for a competition at the same time. That’s a lot of hours,” shared Ms. Ramona, advisor of the Lady Dragons and counselor for Substance Prevention and Rehabilitation Through Knowledge (SPARK).
The fair also provided new opportunities and exposure for student-led teams and clubs. For Stuti Das (‘26), the captain of Team Naach, which means “dance” in Bangla, the performance was a great debut. “It was amazing participating in the Culture Fair, especially because it was Team Naach’s first performance ever and a very memorable start to many more fun performances to come.”
This annual celebration is primarily organized by the Student Government Organization (SGO). The Sophomore Class Council in the SGO worked collaboratively with Mr. Edwin Velazquez, the Coordinator of Student Activities for the classes of 2024 and 2026, to plan the Culture Fair.
Mr. Velazquez highlighted the hard work of the sophomores in student leadership. “The sophomore leadership class and the sophomore [executives] really do most of the planning,” he noted. “What I do is supervise, oversee, give them thoughts, give them inputs, but it’s really planned almost entirely by the sophomore executive council and their events committee.”
Despite all the careful preparation, the Culture Fair was not without mishaps. Around 5:00 PM, students were called to collect food from the southeast side of the cafeteria. Students swarmed into line and faced huge pushing and shoving crowds. “Half the school was trying to get that food,” stated Mechatronics Major Byron Luong (‘24).
Ultimately, not everyone was able to try the food meant to represent the various cultures. Many students who waited over an hour to experience cultural food were left disappointed and unfulfilled.
“Sadly, I was not able to get food, which is a shame because my club [the Middle Eastern Student Association] ordered food from my favorite shawarma store,” said Dalia Elmadboly (‘26).
Despite this unfortunate crowd control challenge, the Culture Fair was overall a success in celebrating the variety of backgrounds and cultures of Tech students.
“When I saw my culture being represented, I really was so happy because growing up I was always ashamed of my culture being so different,” said Architecture major Srity Sarker (‘25). “But seeing so many people excited over something that I used to want to hide about me really did affect me as a child in a positive way.”
