Riverside hosted a welcome dinner in the school’s cafeteria on the evening of Thursday October 8, to celebrate the arrival of the new international students to Riverside.
This event is considered to be an important event for the international students. “This dinner helps build good relations with the students’ homestay families and to welcome the new students,” said Ms. Catherine Yamamoto, the teacher in charge of the international students. “We wish for the international students to feel that they’re welcome here, and for the homestay families to know the students are having a good time and are enjoying themselves at school, bes
ides just focusing on their studies.”
Besides the meal, there were a variety of performances that took place as well. The performers consisted of Riverside’s Joonwon Go, Andy Wu, Erin Wu, Jeffrey Wang, and Riverside Alumni Jian Wang. “I really like how there were people performing songs in different languages,” said William Kim, a volunteer from the Multicultural Leadership course. “The performances showcased just how multicultural this school has become.” The performances included singers, a dancer, and a spoken word presentation. There was also a Kahoot game that the Multicultural Leadership students created for the guests to play during the beginning of the dinner.
The meal consisted of turkey, gravy, filling, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. This was because the dinner took place before the Thanksgiving weekend, and Yamamoto wanted to give the new international students a little taste of what was to come during thanksgiving. This is different from last year, where the meal was a potluck dinner made by the Multicultural Leadership students featuring food from all over the world.
“There is always a chance of not having enough food for everyone, but if that were to be the case, then the Multicultural Leadership students are prepared to sacrifice their meals so that the guests are able to eat,” said Yamamoto. The meal was prepared by Riverside’s culinary class.
