Recently, representatives from the Appreciating Cultures and Ethnicities Club spoke at the faculty’s meeting about the importance of their club, as well as their upcoming project.
During this meeting, they took the time to tell teachers what the ACE Club does and the significance of their club at school.
One of the factors that initiated this presentation was ACE Club advisor Ellen Sheehy making members aware that there are many teachers at the school that don’t know what ACE Club does.
“I think it was important that we spoke to the staff because some of them may not know about the projects we’re working on and our goals, so speaking to them helped make them aware. There were also some new teachers I think, so they may not have known about the ACE club at all before we spoke to them,” said junior ACE Club Vice President Juliette Lai.
Not only were there the upperclassmen who are the leaders and representatives of the club, but there were other club members who spanned from freshmen to seniors there who stood with them.
“I hope that going forward, the ACE Club will keep growing as a strong and welcoming community within Masco. To do this, we’ll need to spread the word as best we can,” said junior ACE Club President Joyce Messak.
In the future, the ACE club would like to continue to have conversations with school staff to help generate enthusiasm for up and coming events and projects.
One of these projects will be a permanent flag installation to help be a physical representation of the diversity at Masco.
The Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI) Initiative started in 2021 to help staff be more mindful of inclusion at Masco. Projects like the flag installation are tangible ways to continue to work on this initiative.
Using a survey, the ACE club will create a list of different countries of origin of Masco students and staff. They will then buy flags of all these countries to hang up in the library.
At the moment, they are raising money for this project by selling pins during lunch. Those buying a pin would need to pay one dollar to place an order for a pin with a flag.
They hope that these conversations will open up to larger ones that more directly tackle the task at hand; creating a safe school environment where all students feel that they are welcomed and belong.