GARDEN GROVE : Celebrating Cultures in a Contest

The raucous crowd of 1,500 students in the Bolsa Grande High School gymnasium Friday fell silent as 18-year-old Khanh Nguyen kneeled and slowly began to pluck the strings of her Vietnamese harp.

The thunderous applause that had greeted Nguyen when she danced across the runway faded as the delicate strains of music began to fill the gymnasium.

As she finished her song, Nguyen smiled at the judges, as if knowing already that her performance would win her first place in the school’s Miss International Contest.

Nguyen was one of 22 women and girls representing countries from all over the globe in a contest that was designed as a celebration of cultural diversity.

The contestants dressed in colorful costumes and performed ethnic dances in front of fellow students and a panel of 10 faculty judges.

The contestants were graded on their costumes, stage presence and cultural presentation.

Among the countries the young women in the contest represented were Cambodia, China, France, Greece, India, Ireland, Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan and the United States.

“It’s wonderful. It’s more than words can describe,” Nguyen said after being named the contest winner. “It’s a moment when you can share your own culture.”

Nguyen said the contest is an important way to dispel racial stereotypes and offer insight into other cultures.

“Every culture has a chance to show what they have, what (makes it) unique,” she said. “We participate together, and we share something.”

The contest was the culmination of International Week, which featured special events, a lecture on ethnic diversity and booths offering foods representative of different parts of the world.

Alan Trudell, a spokesman for the Garden Grove Unified School District, said Bolsa Grande is a remarkably diverse campus.

The student population is Asian-American, white, Latino and black; Asian-Americans predominate, however.

Its students speak 28 languages.

Representing Afghanistan, Katrina Johangiry, 17, a senior, won the first runner-up spot for her costume and graceful dance performance.

Katrina praised both the contest and the International Week celebration, saying, “When other people see the way other cultures are, they won’t be racially prejudiced or biased.”

Love Jefferson, 17, a junior, agreed. The event “brings us closer together. Everybody learns a lot about each other,” he said.

But one of the best things about the pageant is simply that it’s fun, Love said.

“Not many school kids would give up lunch for a fashion show, but you notice it was packed. I guess everyone likes it,” he said.