International Club is full of students who come together to learn more about different cultures. They meet once a month and dedicate their ? me to learn about cultural backgrounds along with international studies. The club’s last meeting was on Jan. 24.
“The (goal) of this club is to spread knowledge about different cultures and international things,” senior Tony Jing said.

They also have different positions that are similar to a student council. Jing is president of the club and helps by inviting and spreading information about the club to the student body. He is very focused on following up with students about the club and takes on a lot of the responsibilities.

Members make presentations to show what they’ve learned and at every club meeting, different ethnic cuisine is cooked based on the country the club is learning about. After presenting, members will usually do crafts or a trivia based on what they learned.

For January’s meeting, foreign exchange student Benedict Bendlin visited the club to talk about his hometown of Lüneberg, Germany. Bendlin showed pictures of the city, mentioned how schools operate where he is from and answered any questions the students had. Bendlin also talked about the architecture and ways of transportation.
When Jing decided he’d like Bendlin to present for the January meeting, he initially contacted Bendlin’s host family. From there, they kept in contact.
He says these presentations are helpful to those who want to know more about the world and travel around.
“It’s great to teach about Germany,” Bendlin said. “It’s a great country, we don’t speak as aggressively as people think. We are no national socialist, that’s really important for us, it’s definitely a place to visit.”

They ate German chocolate cake and Bauernfrühstück, a dish that has potato and eggs, right after.
At the next meeting in February, the club will focus on Chinese New Year. Jing will be presenting during that time.
Spanish teacher Tanya Johnson is one of the two sponsors for International Club. She hopes to encourage students to learn more of the cultures around them and possibly introduce the idea of traveling to some of the places they have learned about.
She also hopes to bring in more students of different backgrounds to talk to the students in the future.
“(The club) definitely is necessary for kids to know more about than just the school that they’re in,” Johnson said. “Other cultures have so much to teach students, and we have so much to teach each other by learning each other’s cultures and where we come from.