BOCES Reach students hold cultural celebration at Wegmans

On Friday, June 5, students and staff in the OCM BOCES Reach program partnered with Wegmans in Liverpool to present a cultural celebration in the store's restaurant cafe. Students worked groups of seven, each responsible for presenting a different country. The project tied together the students' work from their social studies, health and English language arts classes.

In social studies, students were learning about immigration and the "push" and "pull" factors for people coming to America from different countries. In ELA, students had been researching the social, economical, and political situations during different
immigration periods. In health class, students were learning about nutrition. Staff at the school decided to use the opportunity to partner with Wegmans for a cultural celebration as a way of showcasing their work.

Each group analyzed primary sources and created a presentation on the country they chose to study. For the celebration, staff at Wegmans provided food samples for each country, which were presented with the corresponding country's student-created display, and given out free of charge to attendees.

"It was a great opportunity to partner with Wegmans so that students could really get a taste of what they were learning," says Reach program social studies teacher Marc Cizenski. "China had chicken and broccoli, Italy had linguine with sauce, Germany had spaetzle, Poland had pierogi, and Ireland had shepherd's pie.  It was truly an amazing event. Wegmans was absolutely outstanding and our students did a great job."