When Libertyville High School opened its doors in the 1910s, there wasn’t a way for students to explore their diversity within the Wildcat community. However, over the last couple decades, cultural and religious clubs have developed, made progress and cemented their place in the LHS community. LHS offers a wide range of options with religious clubs such as Muslim Student Association and Jewish Culture Club and cultural and diversity clubs like Asian Pacific Islander Club, Latin American Student Association, and Black Student Union.
“’I’ve been the MSA sponsor now for over 15 years,” Muslim Student Association (MSA) sponsor, Kevin O’Neill said. “When I started, it was a very small, almost niche, like it almost felt like a token club, and now it’s just part of the community.”
LHS offers a sizable number of opportunities for its diverse students to experience and connect with other students who they can more closely relate to.
“You know, in any given one of my classes, I might have one or two or three Muslim kids, but at MSA, we’ve got a classroom, and I think there’s definitely something valuable to knowing that,” Mr. O’Neill said. “I’ve got this tight community that we have a lot of things in common with, a lot of things that we know [about] eachother, and I think that’s really important.”
Libertyville is a predominantly white, Christian area which means it’s important for students who don’t fit into that category to have a place to go to meet people who can relate to cultural and religious experiences that other peers may not be able to connect to. Jewish Culture Club is another one of those spaces.
“I think definitely among the students who attend… they’ve found a place [where] they can affirm their identity or discuss that in school for non-Jewish students,” Jewish Culture Club sponsor, Michael Gluskin said. “I think some of them certainly have, like, learned about different aspects of the religion and its culture, which, that’s probably what our main goal has been.”
A specific offering LHS and VHHS have are summits, an event that celebrates the diversity of a specific group and works on the empowerment and ability to make progress within a community.
“It’s a place where you can have all these students who have a similar background hang out together openly,” Asian Pacific Islander Club sponsor, Paul Lecaroz said. “You’re kind of in between two places, straddling in a predominantly white community and then wherever you’re from and code switching all the time.”
Even though LHS has made immense progress over the years in regards to cultural clubs, there’s still more that can be done to fuel the future of these very important clubs.
“There could be more done for the community broadly, but I think it’s within the club itself.” Mr. Lecaroz said. “But there could be more done, like outside our own bubble now, but maybe more expanding out to the school itself. That’s something that’s a goal.”
Cultural and diversity clubs are ever-growing and are open to everyone, even those who just want to learn more about certain cultures and religions. Progress is a battle that is never ending and needs every person to support it. Pop into a club meeting, attend an event and ask questions about these cultures to further your knowledge on the topic.
“We always talk about how everyone is always welcome to come. I think maybe some people think you have to be Jewish to be there, but that’s not the case,” Mr. Gluskin said. “Anyone’s always welcome to attend a meeting.”
