The landscape of Elgin Park Secondary’s staff and student body is changing, with a more diverse student population leading the charge for expanded cultural celebrations at the school.
As the school’s first event, students who are a part of Elgin’s Anti-Racism Committee — Astha Sidhu, Arveen Bassi, Kerlinda Chatwin and Jasleen Sandhu — organized a Diwali celebration.
Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights is celebrated annually by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. The school’s festivities included samosa sales, mehndi (henna) art and a special performance by a Bhangra (traditional Indian dance) team, who gave lessons to the school community.
Many students and staff took part in the lesson, making for a fun crowd of eager participants learning the folk dance.
“The Committee and event is a massive step for our school community as the school population has very few people of colour. The Committee is striving to hold numerous events for all cultures through the year and even bring in speakers to help address the issue of racism,” said Jasleen Sandhu, a Grade 11 student and founder of Elgin Park’s Anti-Racism Committee.
“Our South Asian population has increased over the past few years so the kids wanted to do Diwali… they asked me and I said ‘Yes, let’s do it,” said Kavita Sharma, the first female BIPOC principal of Elgin Secondary School.
“We’re at a point where we’re trying to learn about each other… this is all student-driven, it’s awesome, I’m so proud of them.”
With winter celebrations around the corner, Elgin Park Secondary is looking ahead to its next cultural festival.
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Kavita Sharma is Surrey School District’s only BIPOC principal.
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