Students decorating for their displays (Courtesy/Dr. Losambe)

HOLA parents, part of the Latinx community, decorated the Senior Quad and cafeteria with vibrant banners and piñatas in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated from September 15 to October 15. All upper schoolers engaged in a festive cooking and decorating competition during our Common Hour on October 4.

Recipes included guacamole, ceviche, gazpacho, taco filling, and bean salad. Mr. Alonso, Dr. Jacky, Chef Russell, Mrs. Arif, and Mrs. Salas served as judges of the best items created by all advisory groups, grouped by the 9th and 11th and by the 10th and 12th grades.

Each team decorated a table to feature their dishes. Each category produced a winner based on both taste and appearance. HOLA parents provided recipe ingredients, plates, and cookware and  a variety of decorations including markers, posters, construction paper.

Half an hour and two dozen festive tables later, the judges tried each team’s creation while students danced to “Macarena.”

The guaamole winners were Ms. Chahal and Ms. Nzimiro advisories. Mr. Feinberg and Ms. Berkley’s teams triumphed in ceviche. Dominating the best gazpacho were Ms. Izokaitis and Mr.Ardnt groups. The 10th and 12th teams of Mr. Hunker and Mr. Stegemiller took the crown for taco filling, and Ms. Yan’s and Ms. Brookhart’s advisorirs were victorious with their bean salad. 

Dr. Losambe, our Director of Diversity and Community Life, said this event proved “how celebrating the richness of our cultures and diversity in our community can be such a unifying force for us.”