YONGSAN GARRISON, Republic of Korea -- Last month, U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan observed Black History Month. To celebrate this year, for the first time ever, Seoul American Middle School students researched, filmed and produced a documentary titled "Progress: A Look Back, A Step Forward". Their hard work paid off with a screening among their peers on March 23at Seoul American High School Auditorium.
Han In-sun, Korean Language Teacher at SAMS, recognized the students' hard work.
"This whole event was organized by the student council at SAMS," said Han. "They planned it, interviewed, made a documentary, and successfully celebrated school wide."
From her experience of being a teacher for 18 years, Han continued with a possible problem that Department of Defense Education Activity students may face by attending school overseas with classmates from so many different places.
"Sometimes kids get identity crisis and get confused," Han emphasized. "They have done a great job and I hope the students understand the meaning of celebrating Black History Month. We are overseas, we have incredible diversity in our schools and kids should know about their background in order to understand their heritage."
More than 400 students attended the screening. The documentary began with a brief background on Black History. Then the documentary featured teachers' interviews.Interviewees gave their opinions mainly about Black History back in the days when they were students themselves and they also explained the difference between DoDEA schools and regular public schools in the States. The video not only covered Black History but also diversity as a whole.
"Movie was simply awesome," said Blade Hensrick, 7th grader at SAMS.
8th grader Jacob McMurray gave insightful thoughts, watching his classmates' work. "It was very good. I learned a lot about diversity and the teachers who lectured about how many cultures they have been through and what they grew up thinking, learning and how they feel now and that really affected how I felt because I have been feeling this way for a long time and I wanted to be justified how I felt."
After the documentary screening, awards were presented to student winners of the Black History Month essay and poster contest.
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