Costa creates its own melting pot with Cultures Unite Club

By Duke Saunders
Staff Writer

Diverse cultures get an opportunity to share a part of their lifestyle through Cultures Unite Club.

Black Scholars Union, Latino Scholars Union as well as other cultural organizations at Costa will now be joined by the new Cultures Unite Club founded by Juniors Lucas Wilson and Beverly Cipto. The Cultures Unite Club meets in room 52 every Monday along with 15 other members whose primary focus is to share the “ins and outs” of the cultural diversity on campus.

“The primary reason why I wanted to start this club was because I wanted to share with my fellow students and friends the immense diversity that Costa has to offer in terms of its student body,” club president Cipto said.

In addition to simply discussing with one another about his or her culture club, members bring in ethnic foods of their respective cultures. The foods shared during club meetings extend much more personally than simply buying take out, as club members constantly bring in homemade recipes and delicacies.

“Whenever one of our gracious club members brings in a new food from his native country it always excites and teaches opens our minds to the world around us,” Cipto said.

Every week the club elects a new member to teach the organization about his or her country for the meeting. They take time to elaborate on the history, traditional customs and typical food that is commonly prepared in their country. In addition, the club members spend time after the lesson to discuss the similarities and differences of the presented country and the United States.

“I enjoy coming to this club every Monday because it’s an amusing and unique way to start the school week and alleviates a lot of stress from the day to day,” Vice-President Wilson said.

For the first meeting, Cipto decided to jump start the club by teaching her new members about her Thai heritage, bringing in a Pad Thai dish with vegetables and a variety of meats. Cipto also discussed the customs and traditional holidays celebrated in her house on a regular basis.

“I enjoy coming to this club every Monday because it’s an amusing and unique way to start the school week and alleviates a lot of stress from the day to day,” Vice-President Wilson said. “This club also gives me the opportunity to share my culture and background to the Costa community and allows for students here to explore the world beyond Manhattan Beach.”

In the future, the club hopes to host events at elementary schools within Manhattan Beach to allow the children to learn about the diversity around them. They also plan on organizing fundraisers in order to fund members for the ingredients to make the traditional dishes for club meetings.

“Overall I love the idea of this club as there is so much diversity in terms of the types of people who come to Costa and I believe it is important that our students realize that there is a world beyond the South Bay,” Costa spanish teacher Nancy Geczi said. “The club offers the opportunity to learn about the cultures discussed in foreign language classes and I hope that more students join in the near future.”