Sewanhaka High School District students to host multicultural expo

Editor's Note: This event happened on Saturday, June 13. 

The Gift of Giving Student Ambassador Program will hold a multicultural expo at Sewanhaka High School on Saturday to raise money for its summer internships. 
The student ambassadors are raising funds for their unpaid internships this summer. At the expo, which is free and is scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the high school cafeteria, seven different cultures will be on display, as well as games, food and raffles.
The program helps students visualize their career goals for the future through volunteering for local businesses, neighborhood groups and nonprofits.
The student ambassadors and their leaders said they are very proud of the work that they have accomplished this semester.

Speakers at the expo will include Gift of Giving founder Elizabeth Forbes, student ambassador director Jessica Brown-Sicari and Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages. The ambassador leads — the students from last year who have been guiding this year’s cohort — will also speak. Other speakers are surprise guests who are prominent figures in the community.  
The expo will feature tables representing some of the student ambassadors’ cultures, including Haitian, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Pakistani, Italian, Nigerian and Jamaican heritages. Each booth will also provide a food dish that spectators can enjoy during the expo. 
“(The students) have a lot of dedication and creativity,” Brown-Sicari said.  
The expo will include two raffles that will cost just a few dollars to enter. The first basket will include a traditional Pakistani purse and an authentic Latin sombrero, among other cultural items. The second raffle prize will be a Father’s Day-themed basket. 
Other games such as Uno, Basketball Shootout, Connect 4, Dominos, Sorry and playing cards will be offered throughout the expo. 
The student ambassadors also will open the stage to people who want to tell stories about their cultures. If the storytellers prefer to remain anonymous, they could submit their stories into a bowl, and one of the students will read them all. 
Students will then receive their certificates for completing the ambassador program, celebrating not only their accomplishments with businesses, but also the relationships that they have built along the way. 
“They always have each other to hold onto,” Brown-Sicari said. “It shows they really care about the program and each other.” 

About the Student Ambassador Program
According to Forbes, the program’s mission is to “provide the students with leadership tools, entrepreneur tools, and different aspects of different fields, just to help guide them. That way, when they do graduate from high school, they kind of have the mindset of the real world and maybe the path ahead of them.” 
The student ambassadors’ program exists so each student involved can visit various businesses in Elmont and the surrounding areas throughout the semester. They each spend three hours with each business, learning the ropes with hands-on tasks and hearing the business owners’ stories. 
“I wish someone would have sat me down and said, ‘This is what life is about,’” Forbes said. “These are the struggles, these are the obstacles, but guess what, you’re going to be amazed at how you handle obstacles when you get to be my age.” 
For example, A2Z Auto Masters in Garden City taught the students how to change a car’s oil, among other hands-on skills. Julie Marchesella, owner of Queen of Hearts in Merrick, taught the students the importance of wearing clothes tailored to fit their bodies. They also worked with 718Solar and the Nassau County Police Department’s Fifth Precinct’s Problem Oriented Policing Unit — also known as POP. 
“You never know what you want to do until you put yourself in those shoes, and you really enjoy doing it,” Forbes said. 
Students also visited Belimage in Elmont, where they learned how clothes are made and distributed. Many of the students said their favorite business was Guggin Café because they got the chance to cook their own restaurant-quality food. The students said that getting to see all these businesses has shown them options for the future. 
“It’s given me real-world experience for a lot of different careers and paths I could take,” Blessing Olawoye, a student ambassador, said. 
Forbes said the partnership with Island Harvest was particularly challenging for the students because they had to travel to Melville, and most of them had to rush from Sewanhaka High School after their last class of the day.
Forbes said the experience was very rewarding because it allowed the students to distribute and prepare meals, as well as chat with seniors on the phone. Forbes added that this was just one of many challenges the students faced along the way. 
“This is a new experience for me that I haven’t been in,” Olawoye said. “When you’re an adult, a lot of experiences are going to come your way, and you’ve got to handle that.”
The 21 students who are completing the program this year have seen their lives change for the better, they said. Paola Horta said her demeanor has changed drastically because of the program.  
“Before the program, I was a hermit,” Horta said. “I would not speak unless someone spoke to me, and now I’m bubbly, I’m outspoken now.” 
Horta is not the only student who has experienced these changes. Forbes said she has received multiple text messages from several parents who were happy with their child’s progress. 
“Some of these students were on a misguided path,” Forbes said. “Some of the parents texted me and they’re like, ‘It’s so great you have this program, because my child feels like they can interact with another child again.’”
Forbes and Brown-Sicari said they want to expand the program’s reach and spread it as far as it can go. 
“I just see it being all over Nassau County, and maybe Suffolk, and maybe even worldwide,” Forbes said.