12th Annual International Showcase Enjoyed at Riverside High School

On Tuesday, March 21, over 100 tenth grade World Cultures students with the support of 10 International Club students presented the Twelfth Annual International Showcase of Countries at Riverside High School. Following months of preparation, displays that showcased 33 nations of the world were opened to students in the Riverside district from grade K through 8.

30 Riverside classes with nearly 700 students toured the Showcase this year. In addition, a group of students from Ambridge attended the Showcase for the first time.

Kana and Yukino from Japan; Elisa from Italy; Heloisa from Brazil; Eva from Germany; Denisa from the Czech Republic; Madeleine from Germany enjoyed a stop of Baldinger’s Foods From All Nations. The German girls proclaimed “this is childhood” in response to the candies they discovered at Baldinger’s from their home country.

Nine exchange students currently living in Pennsylvania were participants. These YFU exchange students are Eva from Germany and Elisa from Italy who are attending Corry High School; Heloisa from Brazil and Omar from Lebanon who are attending Riverside High School; Jiayue from Japan who attends Portersville Christian School; Madeleine from Germany who attends Freedom High School; Kana and Yukino from Japan who attend school in Pittsburgh; and Denisa from the Czech Republic who attends Lincoln High School in Ellwood City.

Activities of the Showcase included tasting food, playing a game, learning the language, seeing the flag, looking at pictures, and getting a passport stamped for every country visited. Highlights were:

Visitors went through the process of crossing the border by presenting their passports and going through “customs” before embarking on their “trip around the world.”.
Care to see your name in a different language? Jiayue provided visitors’ names in Chinese while Kana and Yukino provided names in Japanese.
How about an exciting activity? Canada offered an interactive program about Niagara Falls and taught about hockey. Visitors could learn about badminton at the table for China. The students who researched Denmark educated the visitors about Legos, while Hungary taught about Rubic’s Cube.
But as always, the food from each nation attracted visitors the most. Many students chose to research food from their country and visitors were able to sample the international cuisine of five continents.

Students also attended Ellwood’s Showcase on Monday, March 20. This event was followed by a “game night” held at Lincoln in the evening. A lively game of Apples to Apples was enjoyed by the fifteen in attendance. Riverside’s activity included the annual MORP dance on Saturday.

Anyone interested in learning about hosting an exchange student, sending a student on program overseas, or volunteering to mentor a student in your school district while they are on program in the US is encouraged to contact Raylene Boots at Riverside or Jonica Walters at Lincoln High School.