Culture at St Brendan's
Culture: a word that describes almost everything about a person, their history, their taste in food, their family but it’s also so much more. Culture isn’t just all that has existed since the dawn of time, it’s everything to come in the future. It is the constant change and exchange of language, it’s the influence of immigrants and it’s the way we keep cultivating this eclectic collection of different people into a shared culture without eliminating individual differences. It is those differences that make us all unique but also those difference that keep us all together.
Our country is diverse in culture, mainly due to its past colonial nature and its extreme impact in Europe and the rest of the world but as we settle into uncertain times of political tension and widespread hate, it’s important to remember that hope and joy are stronger than fear. By embracing each other’s cultural differences we create a more tolerant and welcoming society.
At St Brendan’s we aim to celebrate culture and the exchange of culture through events run by the Student’s Union. Back in October, we ran events throughout Black History Month by taking advice given by black students in the college and running quizzes and sending information slides to tutors as well as inviting speakers to talk about their black heritage and experience of racism. We also wanted to encourage more black students to share their experiences, not only the negative but what connects them to their culture. As well as this, we have opened new prayer rooms during Ramadan so that Muslim students can pray during the day without distraction or interruption, we are also striving to improve our main prayer room as it is in a definite need of refurbishment. Later this month we are organising a culture week where students can learn about different cultures and countries and take part in activities such as a book review competition, tasting a wider selection of cultural foods in the café and at the end of the week we will be hosting a culture day fashion parade where students and staff can share their love for their culture with their peers.
We are lucky to have so many different languages spoken at the college and so many different students from different ethnic backgrounds that it would be a shame to ignore our immensely rich cultural bank of knowledge and thought. Barring our culture specific weeks and events there are many ways for students to get involved with cultural activities. We run a foreign film club in A block every week as well as a language café where students can learn the basics of new languages taught by our excellent student teachers as well as many more that will be up and running in September.
Languages and cultural knowledge are more important now than ever and that it why we make it one of our top priorities every year.
