In the last year, a group of three students created Simi Valley’s first ever Student Equity Committee. Seniors Joy Oh, Andrea Munoz, and Valerie Montalvo created “SEC” under the premise of their Citizen Scholar Institute project. The promise of the club is “to promote inclusivity and respect for all individuals while striving to create a more equitable school campus” [taken from the @rhs_sec instagram]. Alongside culture, SEC talks about race, gender, and sexual orientation equity. 

In 2022 the committee held a multi-cultural fair in the CSI room with the help of student volunteers, and a brown bag lunch with the Simi Valley Unified School District employee Dr. Angelica Chavez. 

This year, the club extended its commitment to the promotion of equity by leading an “equity week”. The week was planned and run by, senior Kayla Patnett, sophomore Anjali Nakkala, senior Joy Oh, senior Andrea Muñoz, and senior Valerie Montalvo.

One of the main events for this week is the Multicultural Fashion Show. This show took place at lunch outside of the newly opened MPR. All students on campus were encouraged to participate in this show and all other equity activities. 

Once lunch began, seniors Patnett and Montalvo gave a brief introduction to the event and started announcing the different countries involved. 

As students walked down, the speakers explained what country they are from, the importance of their clothing, and some facts about their home country. 

Emily Montalvo represented Bolivia, Ashley Fong represented China, Hiral Choudhary and Aadi Khattar represented India, Anny Zermeno and Andrea Munoz represented Mexico, Yousef Najem represented Saudi Arabia, Izabel Andriana Duran and Kailani Ausina represented the Philippines, Joy Oh represented South Korea, and lastly, Kayla Le and Hannah Tran represented Vietnam.

As SEC is mostly run by current seniors, many of the underclassmen left will have to keep up the legacy of the club. In regards to the future of the club and her position, sophomore Anjali Nakkala said, “I would love to take on a larger role next year if given the opportunity. Being an underclassman was overwhelming at first, but I was given a lot of help and resources along the way. I really enjoyed working with Kayla and I am so glad I got to be part of the Student Equity Community.” 

Patnett is one of the main coordinators of the SEC multicultural events, and when asked about her favorite part of the event she said,  “My favorite thing about the fashion show was seeing the joy in every one of the participants’ faces as they walked. I could tell they were enjoying representing their cultures. I also enjoyed seeing everyone’s cultural dress. I really loved and am thankful for receiving the opportunity to plan and carry out this event at Royal. We make these efforts to promote cultural awareness and inclusivity at our school because it will create a better social environment. Additionally, It will inspire the student body to not only embrace their own cultural diversity but will also allow students to learn about other cultures in our community.”