On April 14, in the Athletic and Convocation Center (ACC), the Culturefest Committee hosted the biannual Culturefest, an event that brought together the entire Upper School and Middle School for a day of cultural celebration and learning. Upper School students attended fourteen unique workshops across two sessions, before joining with the Middle School for performances and catered food from 26 restaurants.
According to Director of Equity and Inclusion Dr. Melissa Lawlor, the event is meant “to celebrate the myriad of cultures on our campus through learning workshops, music, song, dance, traditional clothing, storytelling, and decorations.” She added, “I’d like to think of it as ‘the DEIJ Super Bowl.’”
This year’s Culturefest followed a noticeably different model compared to the previous event in 2024. The day commenced with a special schedule, with classes running from 8:00 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. Check-in and welcome by the Culturefest Committee then took place in the ACC, followed by two rounds of 40-minute workshops—interactive activities held in different classrooms that explored specific cultures. Students were able to choose from fourteen workshops led by students of various cultural backgrounds. The Committee also invited Soraya Darvish ’24 to speak about her Year in Service at the Baha'i World Centre.
At 2:35 p.m., the Culturefest Committee hosted a series of performances in the ACC, including a traditional Latin American dance and Chinese Martial Arts choreography. Then at 3:20 p.m., students gathered in the Rink, where they were free to roam and try different cuisines and activities from 28 food festival tables. Because the food was catered by local restaurants, Lawlor hoped students would be inspired to try diverse cuisines beyond the event and “broaden their horizons.” In the week prior to Culturefest, the Committee also collaborated with Aramark General Manager Justin Cassidy to offer a “global menu” at lunch which featured a variety of foods from across the world.
The roots of Culturefest started 30 years ago, revealed Lawlor. The first one was held in the 1990s and continued until 2010, when the school took a ten-year hiatus. When Lawlor came to Milton in 2021, she wanted “the campus to feel like a community again coming out of COVID,” so she “worked hard to put together [her] first iteration of Culturefest” in spring of 2022, which only consisted of performances and a food festival. Lawlor continues, “The kids at Milton are amazing when it comes to engagement with cultural events, and there was just an overwhelming desire from the student body to enrich the Culturefest experience and really expand it out.”
The 2026 Culturefest Committee included Lawlor, International Student Services Program Manager Zuhra Abhar-Persson, and five student members of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) Board: Aava Darvish ’27, Gustavo dos Reis ’26, Davey Glazer ’28, Faith Ojugbana ’27, and Meghanaa Balasubramani ’27. The committee contained four sub-committees responsible for workshops, performances, dining, and decoration. According to Upper/Middle School Equity & Inclusion Program Manager Yann Kumin, whose role was to coordinate workshops, “everything was a big collaborative process.” Beginning in the fall, the Committee met biweekly “to develop the planning and signup processes and coordinate with participants.”
Dos Reis first suggested the idea of workshops, inspired by the ones he had encountered at DEIJ learning conferences. Building on Dos Reis’ idea, Lawlor emphasized her belief in “students teaching students,” explaining that the workshops “[give students] a platform to teach what they are passionate about.”
Balasubramani, who was in charge of performances, summarized the Committee’s goal for this year: “[to] always have an interactive element, bring in learning, and keep the food and performance aspects.” To support this vision, all students serving food at tables were required to attend ServSafe training, a process that taught hygienic practices such as wearing gloves and hairnets. This training had been a necessary addition, as “the DEIJ board previously saw unorganized and messy food-serving,” Balasubramani explained.
The next Culturefest will be held in 2029. Lawlor explained that the three-year gap is a way to balance out big events, as the upcoming Seminar Day makes “too many big events for Milton” within the same timeframe. Lawlor hopes that Culturefest can become a sustained part of Milton culture, allowing current middle schoolers and Class IV students to “experience the event for the first time and want to become table-heads in 2029.”
Kumin, meanwhile, expressed excitement about seeing the Committee’s process come full circle again and watching Culturefest grow into something “bigger and better.”