Upper Saint Clair High School is very lucky to have a week solely dedicated to learning about different cultures. Global Education Week is all about uniting different communities and cultures. The world is always filled with prejudices and ruptures between cultures and Global Ed Week is all about learning and uniting communities. This year’s theme is “Game On,” where sports and games from different cultures are taken into consideration. Global Ed Week is an exciting week filled with activities and speakers from different cultures to share their perspectives with USC students. There was an event for every block where students are encouraged to participate.
Global Ed Week opened up with a parade where different school clubs and schools walked and sponsored their club in front of the whole school. It was a great way to start this amazing week, especially seeing our school uniting and celebrating each other. On top of the parade, Roberto Celemente Jr was the guest speaker at the start of the week. It was an honor to have Roberto Clemente’s son speaking to our students and staff about the hero his father was. As his son explained, Roberto Clemente was not only a fantastic baseball player, but he was also a great person who spent most of his time helping people around him. Taylor Gibbs expressed how excited she was to have Clemente at school, “I am a huge baseball fan and have always admired Roberto Clemente. On top of his amazing baseball skills, he is a great role model because his goal was to always help people around him and people in need.”
Another interesting event that was held in block 7 on Tuesday was the cricket clinic. Cricket is not a very well-known sport in the United States, so to have eight young people from Afghanistan lead a cricket clinic was phenomenal. The event began with some history about cricket and how the group of boys began getting involved with cricket. Then the star of the event was when members of the audience were able to play a game of cricket with the boys. It was very cool for our students to interact with other students and learn more about their culture. Julia Campagna commented on the cricket match, “It was very entertaining to see the match and it was very nice to see how much the other students were helping USC students. I enjoy most events, but these interactive ones that include students our age are always one of my favorites.”
Although there were so many amazing events held this week, another cool one was being able to listen to the Penguin’s senior writer, Rob Rossi. It was great to hear about his stories as a journalist for the Penguins and all the cool stories and interactions he has had with celebrities. In a part of his speech, he compared sports journalism with normal journalism, and he said how “in sports journalism, you have to expose more truths and have to force celebrities to say stuff they shouldn’t say.” It is not a daily occurrence to hear about journalists who work for such important sports and behind the scenes about their work. He is also a mental health awareness supporter as he struggles with his mental health. Not only is Rossi an interesting person to hear about, but he is also a great role model for young students.
Global Education Week was a wonderful week for USC students to learn more about the world and different cultures. Although only three events were mentioned in this article, this week was filled with wonderful events like the human library, global awareness fair, and many more, which all aim to help unite students and their cultures. As Emma Hollingsworth has said, “I absolutely love Global Education Week and it is something I look forward to every year. I am extremely grateful to be in a school that offers such an amazing week!”