OLAS Shines at Morning Ex with Awareness, Insight, and Fun

This past week, the Organization of Latin American Students affinity group dazzled the community at a special Morning Ex designed to spread awareness and insights into Latin American culture.

To begin, members of OLAS read a poem from Parker’s 11th Annual Jeanne Harris Hansell Endowed Poet Elizabeth Acevedo, “For the Poet who Told Me Rats Aren’t Noble Enough Creatures for a Poem.” Next, OLAS Heads senior Krysi Aguilar and juniors Uriel Castañeda and Scarlett Mosquera welcomed the audience to the Morning Ex. “Parker’s Upper School OLAS (Organization of Latin American Students) mainly consists of Mexican-identifying students, which creates a lack of diversity amongst our own group,” they explained. “We felt inclined to tackle this issue to ensure all our affinity members have a safe space to share their specific identity regardless of whether it includes our group’s most common ethnicity. As OLAS heads, we decided that we would focus on representing Latin America as a whole, sharing specific knowledge on other Latin cultures that our affinity felt was important to share with the students at Parker.”

To that end, members of OLAS covered information about Argentina, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic, including demographics, holidays, foods, and other topics on each country’s culture. OLAS also included details about Latino athletes and their time at the LatinX Conference last school year. The Morning Ex ended with OLAS teaching the group how to dance the bachata.

“We hope that students had fun learning about all the cultural differences in Latin America and learning how to dance bachata,” Castañeda shared.

Join Parker in congratulating OLAS on a tremendous Morning Ex!

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