Students interested in learning about foreign countries and their cultures gathered in Room C301 for the first International Club meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Rachel Gross (12) and Sean Meyer (12) are the co-leaders of the club, with Mrs. Jennifer Fandl, Math, as their sponsor.

“We kind of noticed that yes, people at our school travel, but I think that culture awareness and diversity is not that strong, and we want to spread awareness. We want people to learn about different countries without having to travel there. It’s a good way for us to spread our passion for traveling to the rest of our peers,” Gross said.

During the meeting, the club voted on the countries that the students were most interested in studying throughout the year. Some of the countries that were voted on included Brazil, Syria, Ireland, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Singapore and India. Gross and Meyer are hoping to have students and possible community members share presentations about their cultures.

“[The countries] aren’t set in stone because we’re also going to see who we can find people in the area who can speak. If we don’t find anyone from the countries, we can’t give a presentation on them. The reason why we did this was to get feedback from the people in our club to see what they’re interested in,” Gross said.

Apart from spreading cultural awareness throughout the school, Gross and Meyer are encouraging diversity within their own club.

“We’re also trying to get some underclassmen interested because a lot of them were seniors and our friends, but we’d like underclassmen [to get] involved, so when we graduate, the club will continue to go on,” Gross said.