We’ve all listened to Latin music before, or even eaten delicious food from an Asian restaurant, but have you ever considered the interesting culture that hides behind that plate of sweet and sour chicken? Diversity Council can help you find that.

On December 4, Diversity Council held its annual Diversity Dinner at Liberty North High School. The event featured food, various performances , and a visit from the kansas city native comedian B-Rich. Also, visitors were split into focus groups to discuss diversity with professional speakers and also how they became successful as a minority.

“Just being able to have that different perspective from all these different people that come from different backgrounds I think it’ll just be good for not only us but for the younger kids that’ll be there since we will be instilling in their mind that there’s all these different cultures and that we should open our minds to them,” senior Mary Mwaura said.

Diversity Council is a mixed group of culturally interested students that meet, discuss, and experience different cultures. This group focuses on exposing different cultures to students and making them aware of the interesting diversity within the LHS body which otherwise would not be noticed.

“The purpose was just to encourage diversity within our school. There are a lot of cultures in Liberty High School but not a lot of representing,” senior Chiarra Franklin said.

Diversity Council meets during Liberty Hour B every Thursday in the counseling office. In an effort to discover different cultures within LHS the council invites guest speakers to their meetings to talk about the cultures they come from and students can ask them questions to get a better understanding.

“We just started our guest speakers [and] recently we had Senora Ruiz come in and speak about Guatemala. Some upcoming speakers we have [are] one of our foreign exchange students Skyy who’s going to be talking about life in Germany and how it’s different in the U.S.,” senior Riley Peek said. “It’s interesting to have [these] new approaches because we tend to only see certain aspects of life through a certain lens and it’s nice to have a new perspective.”

Along with uncovering culture within LHS, Diversity Council also offers students the opportunity to experience different cultures around Liberty. Recently they went to the Nelson-Atkins museum of Art and visited the Native-American exhibit and students were also able to explore the other cultural exhibits around the museum.

“It was wonderful, the display was extremely vibrant and educational. It provided information and a true appreciation for the Native-American culture,” teacher Brenda Wiederholt said.

Diversity Council also went to Winstead’s after visiting the exhibit for the restaurant’s great culture and it’s great grub.

“The visit to Winstead’s is always a treat because it’s fixated on Kansas City culture and has been for the longest time,” Peek said. “It originated here and kind of spread from Kansas City a little bit, but I love Winstead’s it’s amazing.”

The club feels as it is gaining momentum when it comes to new student members, however many current members believe the club still has some growing to do in order to cause somewhat of a cultural change in the community.

“I think that we’re getting there, there’s a lot of work to be done when it come to getting minorities, and under-represented cultures the spotlight I think that it will take a while to get to the point that we want to be at,” Peek said. “That might not happen this year, it might not happen in two years, but I think that we are making that first step and putting our foot in the door and that’s what’s making a difference.”

The whole purpose of the Diversity Council is to present different cultures to students and become more aware of diversity within our school. The result of this being that LHS becomes a more cultural and equalized school.

Anyone who is interested in the club or the Diversity Dinner is invited to join and experience and there are no conditions or limitations to become a member.

Senior Jane Awoh agrees, “As a community we’re just showing that regardless of your race, your orientation, your religion, [or] your beliefs; that everyone is just as important as each other and that we can all get along.”