On the week of March 19th up until March 23rd, John Abbott College had its annual “Multicultural Week”. A week long event in which the John Abbott community come to celebrate our multicultural heritage and ethnic diversity in a room filled with delicious food. The goal of this event is to make the JAC community to raise awareness of the many cultures and ethnic diversity of our school. It is a time to celebrate and educate diversity through tradition, heritage and food.
According to Bill Mahon, student activities coordinator and organizer of this event, “Multicultural Week is an student runned event in which we promote different countries and their cultural backgrounds. It gives students …show more content…
Multicultural Week first commenced for the sole purpose to have become more diverse as it was a way to promote different cultural backgrounds. Bill Mahon states that it first began because of the lack of diversity JAC had “where 85-90% of the students were West Islanders and anglophones”. A few decades ago, the vast majority of the population was strictly upper middle class families who attended John Abbott College. Students were struggling with integrating different cultures into school due to the lack of diversity that was being presented in the hallways. The school worked hard to incorporate different cultures in a school that favored english speaking people and eventually established a week dedicated to the the diverse …show more content…
They came from the same neighborhood and were relatively english speaking”. This event was first introduced as a mean to combat discrimination and because of it people are more accepting to one another’s culture. As the West Island gained popularity and developed, there was a greater number of families and immigrants who were coming to live there. The school became more culturally is becoming more culturally diverse.
Although many students come from West Island homes, there is an increase in diversity among those who attend John Abbott. There is a higher diversity rate at John Abbott with students who now come from 85 different countries. Sean, a student from the Social Science program said; “When I look at the people around me, there is a lot more diversity and different ethnicities in comparison to previous