Riverside High School Eleventh Annual International Showcase – 2016

On Friday, April 1, 50 tenth grade Honors World Cultures students with the support of 25 International Club students presented the Eleventh Annual International Showcase of Countries at Riverside High School. Following months of preparation, displays that showcased 31 nations of the world were opened to students in the Riverside district from grade K through 8.

21 classes with over 300 students toured the Showcase this year. In addition, six exchange students currently living in Pennsylvania were participants. These YFU exchange students are Alma from Germany who is attending Portersville Christian School; Kornelia from Slovakia who is attending Neshannock; Jasper from Tanzania, Suzu from Japan, and Pihla from Finland who are attending Riverside High School; and Sofia from Mexico who is attending Mohawk High School. Alma from Germany made a special presentation of the Cold War from her perspective to Mr. G Hall’s AP Government class. Her PowerPoint presentation was followed by a lively question and answer period.

A special guest was Sunny Huang, who was a YFU exchange student from China at Riverside 2014-15. Visiting her host family this week, Sunny and her host sister Bekah Bettencourt taught visitors about China at the Showcase. This multi-cultural event was also attended by six students from the International Club of Lincoln High School, Ellwood City. Some Riverside students will participate in the International Showcase at Lincoln High School in Ellwood City next week on April 8.

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:

1. Border guards made the experience real with their questions for visitors. What is your purpose for visiting? Do you have anything to declare? These questions brought giggles to some, but wide-eyed trepidation from others as they had to present their passport and go through “customs” before entering their new adventure.
2. Care to see your name in a different language? Visitors took advantage of this offering, with natives from two countries writing in traditional characters. Suzu Kimura, assisted by Riverside alumni Xander Boots, wrote names in Japanese, and Sunny wrote names in Chinese. Xander is participating in the Showcase for his ninth consecutive year. He learned Japanese through the RCI program while here at Riverside.
3. How about an exciting activity? Costa Rica featured an “active” volcano. Hockey could be played in Canada and soccer in Argentina. Denmark featured a lesson on Legos and Russia taught about matrewshka, which are traditional nesting dolls. The Tour de France, underwater caves, indigenous animals and holidays were all taught to the visitors by the high school “experts.”.
4. But as always, the food from each nation attracted visitors the most. Fourteen countries offered food and/or drink, including Japan, Russia, the Philippines, Greece, Spain, Australia, India, England, Ukraine, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Costa Rica, and Germany.

Other activities associated with the Showcase included a visit to the Native American days at Slippery Rock University, followed by a game night. Now students from around the world know how to play “Apples to Apples” and the card game “Spoons.” After the Showcase on Friday, Riverside’s International Club sponsored a night of bowling at Sims Lanes.

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 U.S. is encouraged to contact Raylene Boots at Riverside or Jonica Walters at Lincoln High School.