At Timberline High School, We have a large diverse student body. Students from many different cultures come together to learn and grow as people. With the lasting effects of COVID-19, representation is now as important as ever.

Some people feel as if their cultures are being cast aside. Timberline holds its own Cultural Awareness Assembly that resonates around students' backgrounds. This assembly used to be a huge event that brought students together; however last year people knew little to nothing about it. The feeling of some students being cast aside and COVID-19 making a huge impact on how the school's environment has changed.

Rameza Ujan, as Timberlines Cultural Awareness Club Vice President, has insights about herself and others cultures being a Muslim student who is very involved in several activities relating to culture at Timberline. (when asked) About her own personal experiences with representation she states “A lot of people look up to me for how I personally represent my culture in school.” Her interactions with everyone make this shine through, she mentions particular things that have stuck with her and the impact mentioning, “Our principal (who) waits every Friday for me to show up in cultural clothes and shows it off to others.” Kingsley Tuiaana, a senior this year at Timberline High School, touched on how he already sees people learning and spreading culture saying “I have had people come up to me and ask things like, hey, what's the meaning behind all of this and that, and they get their answers.” He elaborates saying “It's so awesome when people come up to me in person and ask.”

The inclusivity Ujan feels isn't a common thought, Isaac Osuna-Perez, a junior here at Timberline High School, touches on students' attitudes when bringing up culture mentioning “I feel that's kind of just a thing that the students have to do, not just with Hispanic culture but the tons of other cultures throughout the school, it's mostly the students who I see encouraging culture.”

When asking Tuiaana about how he feels his culture is represented around the school he says, “from what I've seen, no not really. I don't really see that much about Islanders outside of the Cultural Awareness Club and when we perform that's really it”

He goes on to explain why he thinks the reason is saying “we haven't exactly dealt with any rough things like, obviously with Native Americans they have had their lands been colonized here. that's just one of many examples to be honest”. He goes on to say “I don't think Islanders are really being represented out here, mainly because we don't have lots of our population here but we let them know we're here.”

On that thought Perez touches on is the scheduling of a theme this year at one of Timberlines football games. Football usually has themed games to show spirit but this one sparked a bit of controversy. “They shouldn't have scheduled the American theme on Mexican Independence Day for the game.” He goes on to explain that, “It made me feel unappreciated because in the U.S, Independence Day is a very big day for Americans yet you don’t see other individuals trying to discredit them. At least now they know that next time they should double check the dates and themes.”

Speaking of not being represented, Ujan mentions the goals of her club to “spread culture in the school but also outside of it and around the district.” One of those big projects that Ujan touched on was the Cultural Awareness Assembly.

“Because of Covid-19 the assembly had lost its importance, so our goal was to bring back the importance and the value of it being one of those powerful things that combines different cultures and gets people to respect you and your race,” Ujan states, “it's kind of like introducing yourself through your own culture and race you know?”