2024 May Community Newsletter
Community Engagement and Belonging
"May is the month of promise and the sweet beginnings of summer." - Unknown
Hello and Welcome to the month of May. I hope that this month is filled with wonderful, sun filled moments. Please join us for a few events taking place in May: Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Food Fair and of course all the wonderful concerts and art shows taking place. Additionally, please join us for a student-led production of The Obsidian Effect on Saturday, May 11 at 7:00 pm in the auditorium. Please come out and support the efforts of Seniors, Mallory Childs, Olivia Johnson, and the rest of the cast members.
The Upper School advisories are participating in a kite making contest sponsored by the Student Community Engagement and Belonging Council, led by Dr. Kitty Lam. The activity combines AAPI month and our newly crafted core values: Community, Integrity, Empathy, Respect, and Excellence. It is an enjoyable, meaningful activity that our Head of School, Tom Sheppard will judge. The winning kites' images will be shared in this newsletter in two weeks.
As always, there are so many wonderful moments to celebrate and recognitions taking place in May, and many are highlighted in this newsletter. From Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, and Speech-Language-Hearing Awareness Month and so many more. I consider these recognitions as moments to educate, bring awareness, and appreciate the joy of the events that are celebrations.
Each May, hundreds of organizations and Americans of all backgrounds join together to discover, explore, and celebrate the vibrant and varied American Jewish experience from the dawn of our nation to the present day during Jewish American Heritage Month. I had the pleasure and honor of serving on the Zekelman Holocaust Center's Teacher Advisory Group for several years and it was a great honor to learn and create lesson plans, guides etc. for educators. If you have the opportunity to visit the museum during May, this is a great opportunity to honor and celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month.
Our Middle and Upper School counselor, Sarah Kost-Cox has contributed a lot of great information about Mental Health Awareness month below, please be sure to read the information.
As always, if you have any questions and/or would like information considered for the newsletter, do not hesitate to contact me. All the best.
Sincerely,
Michelle Cureton
Director of Community Engagement and Belonging
May Celebrations and Recognitions
Month-Long Celebrations:
- Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
- Jewish American Heritage Month
- Mental Health Awareness Month
- Speech-Language-Hearing Awareness Month
May Daily Celebrations and Recognitions:
May 5 — Cinco de Mayo
May 5- Orthodox Easter
May 5 - Yom Hashoah (Jewish)
May 5 - World Laughter Day
May 6 - National Nurse Day
May 12 — Mother’s Day
May 15 - International Day for Families
May 17 — International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia
May 19 - Malcolm X Day
May 21 — World Day for Cultural Diversity
May 22 — Visakha Bucha Day
May 26 - Arbor Day
May 27 — Memorial Day
May 28 - International Day of Action for Women's Health
May Weekly Celebrations and Recognitions:
- May 5th-11th-Public Service Week
- May 6th-10th-Teacher Appreciation Week
- May 6th-10th-Children's Book Week
- May 6th-12th-National Nurses Week
- May 12th-18th-National Women's Health Week
Please Join Us For the Two ULS Events Below: Play and Fair
First Sunday Market
Midwest Buddhist Meditation Center: First Sunday Market
Prepare your taste buds for an unforgettable Thai , Laos & Hmong food sale that will transport you straight to the vibrant streets of Thailand.
Indulge in a culinary adventure as we bring you the flavors, aromas, and spices of Thailand. Click on the link for more details.
Sunday, May 12, 2024, 09:30 AM
Midwest Buddhist Meditation, 29750 Ryan Road, Warren, MI, USA
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
"Bridging Histories, Shaping Our Future’
Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month is an invitation to pay attention to the history, identities, and stories of Asian and Pacific Islander American (AAPI) peoples. It is also a chance for educators to better understand and support AAPI students. And as AAPI people continue to be victimized by increased acts of racist violence in the wake of the pandemic, educators face additional challenges around how to support students from those communities, lend historical context to these harrowing events, and stand against anti-Asian racism
Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Books
May Quotations Presented by: Upper School French
and Spanish Teacher Mr. Alan Rivera
Quotes by people who may identify as one or more of the following identities: Asian,
Asian American, Asian Pacific American (APA), Asian/Pacific Islander (API), Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA), and Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander(AANHPI) etc. Within the fore mentioned identities there are many diverse ethnicities and ancestries etc.
“Wear your failure as a badge of honor. If you don’t fail sometimes, you are not being ambitious enough.”
• Sundar Pichai, businessperson
“I don’t really know what feeling Japanese or Haitian or American is supposed to feel like. I just feel like me.”
• Naomi Osaka, athlete
“I remember watching Margaret Cho with my grandmother on TV. She was my hero, not only because she was funny, but because she showed me that it's okay to be yourself, that it's okay to be a brash yellow girl and to be a strong and brave woman.”
• Nora Lum (AKA Awkwafina), actor, rapper, comedian
“Don’t accept dogma. Dogma aren’t necessarily truth. Learn to challenge dogma. I am of Chinese heritage. In that culture, one doesn’t challenge authority very often. While that may be good in controlling a pandemic when you want obedience, it’s not a great science practice.”
• David Ho, researcher, physician, virologist
“If you read a lot of Chinese literature, there have always been very strong women figures - warriors, swordswomen - who defended honor and loyalty with the men. So, it's not new to our culture - it's always been very much a part of it. It's good that now the Western audience would have a different image of Chinese women.”
• Michelle Yeoh, actor
“Coming from an Asian culture, I was taught to respect my elders, to be a better listener than a talker.”
• Lisa Ling, journalist
I never got to go to prom or homecoming or a lot of the typical teenage stuff. But, if you think about it, I’ve gotten to go and meet different people and travel around the world.”
• Nathan Chen, athlete
“Games shouldn’t only be fun. They should teach or spark an interest in other things.”
• Hideo Kojima, video game designer
“I’m a proud Londoner, a Brit, European, of Pakistani heritage, a Muslim. We all have multiple layers of identity. That’s what makes us who we are.”
• Sadiq Khan, politician
“I grew up in a Hindu household but went to a Roman Catholic school. I grew up with a mother who said, 'I'll arrange a marriage for you at 18,' but she also said that we could achieve anything we put our minds to and encouraged us to dream of becoming prime minister or president.”
• Indra Nooyi, businessperson
“Ideas do not always come in a flash, but by diligent trial-and-error experiments that take time and thought.”
• Charles K. Kao, physicist
“People started saying ‘Oh, he’s quicker than he looks.’ And I’m like ‘What does that mean? Do I look slow? What does that mean?’”
• Jeremy Lin, athlete
“I would like to make a film to tell children ‘It’s good to be alive.’”
• Hayao Miyazaki, animator, filmmaker, anime artist
JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) is an annual recognition and celebration of American Jews' achievements and contributions to the United States of America during the month of May.
Jewish Identity and History Books
The Zekelman Holocaust Center
"Founded in 1984, The Zekelman Holocaust Center (The HC) first opened its doors on the campus of the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield as the Holocaust Memorial Center and relocated to the current award-winning building in 2004. The HC houses not only our core museum exhibits, but an extensive research library, archives, and a gallery for special art and history exhibits.
Each year, we reach more than 100,000 people through our teacher trainings, virtual museum experiences, virtual programs, and in-person visits to the museum. As the Center continues to grow, so have our educational outreach efforts. To aid teachers in meeting the Holocaust education mandate of Michigan Public Act 170, our teacher trainings now reach schools in nearly every county. In addition, we continue to develop new relationships with school districts and virtual schools, understanding their needs so that every student in the state has equitable access to Holocaust education.
Today, not only is there a rise in antisemitism, there is a decline in living testimony as we are approaching a time when Holocaust survivors will no longer be with us. The Holocaust Center’s content focuses on Holocaust victims’ and survivors’ personal stories to help our visitors understand how the Holocaust could have happened.
We invite each of you to visit and hope through your experience you gain tools to stand up to hatred, antisemitism, and genocide. Together, we envision creating a more tolerant and empathetic society."
Mental Health is Not a Mental Illness
By: Sarah Kost-Cox, University Liggett Upper and Middle School Counselor
National Speech-Language-Hearing Month
National Speech-Language-Hearing (NSLH) month. Communication in general is a crucial part of the human experience, whether that’s choosing to communicate verbally or non-verbally, in different languages, using sign-language, with assistive communication devices such as hearing aids or with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices. Opportunities like NSLH month of May (and again in October for Audiology Awareness Month) allow us to share all the options and technology that is now available for effective communication.
Formerly known as Better Hearing and Speech month, this month-long acknowledgement was originally established by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) in 1972. Before that, in 1927, there was a week known as National Hearing Week established by the Federation of Organizations for the Hard of Hearing. In 1958, it expanded to Better Hearing Month, finally being coined Better Hearing and Speech Month, in 1972. Just last year, ASHA revealed the new name of National Speech-Language-Hearing Month. In their press release, ASHA reported the new name is more inclusive of all manners of communication.