Rich ethnic smells will fill the air with different international foods each day, new languages will greet you each morning, and different people from unique parts of the world will become new friends. This year, AHS is commencing Unity Week. The goal is to make the school come together as one, and have people from different backgrounds share their stories and get to know other people in the school.

“I went to a seminar at a counseling conference that was promoting kids to work together, to break out of their comfort zones, and break down the barriers at school,” AHS counselor Emily Weingart said.  “I then asked Annie Durkin, Tameira Wilson, Josh Berro, and Kim Martin if they would be interested in the idea, and Kim told me that she did a very similar thing at her old school.”

This year’s Unity Week will happen during the week of February 24^th, and will include ski day and snow fest on the 27^th. There is a committee of about twenty students that has met three times, and has come up with a few great ideas to bring the school closer together.

“At the meeting, we break the students into three committees. One plans the international carnival/bazaar idea, another team plans the Olympics, and the last team plans other events that they want to happen throughout the week such as announcements in different languages every morning, and Chef Jeff is making food from different countries,” Weingart said.

There will be one day for an International Bazaar, where students will be assigned a country in the world and dress up in that nation’s traditional clothing, make food from that country, and make arts and crafts. Each country will decorate their booth, and students can walk around and talk to each person from that country and learn about that country and student.

Ski Day will include a mock Sochi Olympics. There will be teams of students assigned to each country, and they will represent that country for the day in the different, fun activities that take place.

Throughout the week, the school will try and incorporate fun little things, such as putting the announcements in different languages each morning, or Chef Jeff making a meal from a different country each lunch. This will allow the students to feel more international, while learning about other countries they may not have known much about.

“Considering we are an IB school, we need to take on more of an international aspect. I think our school does a good job of working together, but there are always cliques, and what we will work towards is ensuring that the cliques are nice to each other, and that students don’t judge a book by its cover,” Weingart said.

With this being just the first year of Unity Week, it is a work in progress, but if it goes well, the plan is to make it an AHS tradition. It is designed to be something that is student driven.

“I would hope that it would become a recurring thing to bring our school together, and something that lasts longer than a week,” Weingart said.