The Amistad festival on September 2, 2023, at Putnam City High School, was a collaborative endeavor between the OKC Warr Acres community and the PC schools. It’s aim was to enhance the community’s closeness and strengthen the school’s bonds.
“The festival is an attempt at bringing together the community of Warr Acres and Putnam High School to see each other as individuals,” English teacher Daniela Nusbaum said.
In addition to the vibrant vendor offerings, the festival had an exciting lineup of events, featuring folkloric dancers, jumpers, local school bands, and a horse show as well. Central to this event is community involvement with the school. The community is the main goal of the event.
“I want our teachers and students to be involved with what’s happening in our community because life isn’t just school; life is the community you live in and how the community interacts with each other,” English Teacher Daniela Nusbaum said.
Simultaneously, Putnam City High School students’ participation remains a key focus of the event, providing opportunities to share cultures and diverse backgrounds, not just simple interactions with each other.
Teacher involvement with their students and community may be a goal of the event, but so is student engagement.
“Students should definitely be involved; it brings a new perspective to them. We’re stuck in this school away from outside community and engagement for long periods of time, which causes this little bubble within the school that doesn’t interact with the city or community. We should get out of that bubble and interact with each other,” junior Jackson Huffman said.
Not only do they emphasize the importance of interaction with each other, they also emphasize the importance of learning communication and how it can affect students.
“A lot of them (students) are quiet and that becomes a problem going into the future past school. Eventually, they’ll need to do things that require them to interact with each other, such as public speaking, so it’s important that we learn to interact early on, senior Lac Lam said.
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Thank you to Journalist Daniel Avila and the student staff of The Pirate Log. For more information on The Pirate Log you can contact Ms. Tracey Ferguson at tferguson@putnamcityschools.org.