With the start of a new school year, the dining hall also has some pleasant additions: the national flags of some of the people who call Kent home. 

Mr. Cataldo states that this project has apparently been in discussion for quite some time, before finally beginning at the start of the year in January. Linnea Saxton ‘23 mentions that this was in fact a student-led project, started by the Community Equity Council, spearheaded by Lexy Prior ‘21, who graduated last year, and Mrs. Hall. Both Cataldo and Saxton said that the project was started to represent inclusivity and diversity at Kent. “Having flags in the dining hall is e a wonderful signal,” Cataldo says, “that the school embraces multiculturalism and is a place that is inclusive.”

When asked about why the flags were specifically placed in the dining hall, Cataldo answered that “ it is the one space on campus that every student and most adults will pass through during the day.” He also adds that it is possible that there will be more flags put up in the future.” We want to make sure that we have all the flags from the countries that all the students are coming from, but we should think of countries where we had students from, that aren’t currently represented and other countries that we would like to see students coming from.” 

With the numerous flags put in the dining hall, they should be pretty hard to miss if you walk in whether it’s for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Next time you visit, cast your eyes up to the ceiling to see if your flag is there.