The following blog comes from one of our students and was originally published in an issue of Hilltopics, published April 2019.

With such a diverse group of students at SLS, it is hard to represent all of the ethnicities present. However, this year on the evening of March 3rd, SLS held its annual Cultural Heritage Festival. Every year students form groups to represent different countries, such as Korea, Italy, and Africa. This year the festival represented twelve countries. Freshman Jacob Lim said, “It was cool to see all the different groups and their foods represented.” The night was a huge success.

The success was mostly due to the hard work of the students who volunteered their time to get ready for the event. The different groups divided the responsibilities to make things easier. Some students were in the kitchen working with the Sodexo staff and cooking their country’s food, while others were working on colorful posters to represent their country and the food they served. Other students were also responsible for plating and selling the food. The Korean group leader junior Hyeonyu Kim said, “It was great to have a diverse and helpful group of students to participate in the Korean group.”

When the event started and the time came to start buying food, students lined up outside the refectory doors and on their way in received tickets to buy food and a beverage. As the students rushed in, eager to sample the food, the groups got ready to start selling. Some of the first food items to sell out were the Filipino group’s BBQ pork skewers and the German group’s black forest cake. Senior Sullivan Stier said, “My favorite food came from the Korean group; it was a noodle and meat dish.”

Cultural Heritage night does not just consist of food; the end of the night included a raffle. The prizes are different every year and it is exciting to see what the prizes are. This year’s prizes were Black Panther themed blankets, a sports backpack, a box of Indomie Noodles and an SLS sweatshirt. All students were entered in the raffle at least once and students could receive an extra entry for each positive write-up that they received over the previous three weeks. With an incentive like that, it was no surprise that there was an increase in positive write-ups. This year’s Cultural Heritage Festival was one for many to remember.

St. Lawrence Seminary is an all boys Catholic boarding school located in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin. We welcome students from Minnesota, Illinois and across the United States. Inspired by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the example of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Lawrence Seminary provides a residential college preparatory education in a living Catholic community nurturing mature, well-rounded men of faith. See if St. Lawrence is right for you and your son.