Santa Susana High School

International Festival
A Senior Project by Rebecca Lang

Becca Lang
AP English 12
Mrs. Bradley
10/26/16

Simi Valley, the town I grew up in, is a very conservative place. While there is
nothing wrong with being conservative, and there are many great Republicans, as a
small-but-mighty liberal, I unfortunately had many conversations with people who were,
well, ignorant. Many people from my city grew to have a more closed-minded point of
view, because they were raised in a city full of closed-minded individuals.
As a member in our society, I have always felt the need to contribute to the
world; I wanted to somehow add my own positive legacy behind. Going into my senior
year of high school, I had decided that the impact I wanted to make had to do with
acceptance and how to make others more tolerant of each other. This is something I
want to continue with as an adult and to be fighting for as I grow older. As a starting
point, I wanted to create my own international festival. You may be thinking, What
would that have to do with tolerance?, and to that I would say: the more you learn
about other cultures, the more you perspectives you can see from. There are millions of
ways that people decide to live their lives, but unless you are exposed to them,
whatever that is seen as different may be interpreted as wrong. For someone who is
close-minded, it may be easier to understand that some people kiss each others
cheeks instead of hugging, versus some boys want to kiss other boys. But by making
that first connection of, People greet each other differently, and thats okay, it opens a
gate to a more open-minded way of thinking.

The festival will include almost no information about American culture and will
strictly pertain to cultures all over the world. There will be booths describing geography,
historical backgrounds of famous princesses, global holidays, and much more. I am
qualified to complete this task because I have been studying French for the past two
years, and I have learned so much about not only French but francophone cultures
(Senegal, Belgium, Canada). I have also planned many events by being a board
member of our high schools Thespian Club. I have learned how to publicize, organize
and get volunteers for events. Planning this festival will teach me even more planning
events efficiently and about many different cultures. With my international festival, I
hope to open up my fellow citizens eyes and create a more accepting mentality for the
people of Simi Valley.
The first step to creating a festival is to plan it. According to wildapricot.com, one
should always give themselves about four-sixth months to plan an event. Religious
holidays, other community events and school vacations should be kept in mind when
deciding on a date. Once the date has been chosen, the next step is to create the event
staff. This can include a publicizer, an entertainment team, a decorator, volunteers, and
sponsors. Next, the event should be branded. Logos, websites, slogans and a catchy
name can be made in order to help promote the event and make it memorable. Then, a
complete master plan should be created. This should consist of a venue, catering if food
is necessary, prices of tickets to get in, overall expenses, a group of volunteers,
different activities and entertainment that will be provided, publicity ideas and deadlines
for all planning ideas to be set up and completed. Once the master plan has been

created, the coordinator can find sponsors for the event. Sponsors can either be local
businesses or large companies depending on the content and size of the event. When
funds are available, a budget should be made to know how much money can be spent
on food, performers, decorations and labor (if security is needed). The last planning
step would be to create a publicity plan for the event. The event should start to be
advertised about a month before the date, but in the two weeks leading up to the event,
there should be reminders and lots of publicity in order to draw people in.
A festival such as this requires a lot of publicity and advertising in order to get
people to come. To get the information out around campus, one of the best ways to
advertise is to simply put up posters and flyers around the school, especially around
popular areas or places where parents drop off/pick up their children. Posters will not
only help spread the word around school, but it will also be beneficial to hang them in
restaurants, shops, and community centers around town. Other ways to get the word
out there include: going on a radio show to talk about/promote the event, requesting an
ad in the local city and other cities surrounding the event locations newspapers,
hanging balloons to get peoples attention on the day of the event, personally handing
out flyers in malls, movie theaters and parks, or placing door hangers outside the
homes of a neighborhood. Lastly, one of the easiest ways to promote an event is to
create a Facebook event or create a social media account for it. If the event coordinator
is tech savvy, they can also either build a website about the event and organization, or
they can use a web-creating website such as weebly.com or Google Sites.

Something to always keep in mind when planning an event is money: how it will
be spent, how much everything will cost and most important, where and how to get
funds. Fundraisers are a great way to make money while also publicizing an event. For
school events, the best way to fundraise is by creating group activities for families to
participate it while donating some money. Great activity ideas would include: a bingo
night, a silent auction, an art auction, a comedy night, a karaoke night or a carnival put
on by the school. These fundraisers can generate lots of money by not only having
parents pay to get in, but also creating different opportunities to donate more through
games or other activities. Probably the easiest and simplest way to raise money is
through a restaurant fundraiser. If many people and families participate, lots of money
can be raised without any work or money being spent on the fundraiser.
In order to carry out successful fundraisers, and events, one must gather
volunteers. Collecting high school volunteers can be easier if there are already-existing
community service clubs such as Key Club or Interact Club. While it may be easy to get
many kids to sign up, actually having them follow through is a different. Collecting the
emails of volunteers and giving them notices in advance, a week, two days before and
then the day before, will help keep them on track and aware of what is happening.
Another way to attract volunteers is through social media. Creating a simple sign-up
sheet and posting it on multiple social media apps (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.)
will get the word out about volunteer positions that need to be filled. It is also important
to utilise programs such as a schools PTA branch or if a school sends out a weekly
email blast providing information for the volunteers needed. Another way to get people

to volunteer their time and energy is through incentives. By offering prizes such as
awards or pizza, people may be more willing to show up and pitch in.
Once volunteers have signed up, its important to keep them involved and
trained. Hosting training days before the event will be beneficial to not only the event
planner but also to the volunteers because they will be confident in what they are doing
which will reflect well on the event itself. Its also important to keep the volunteers in the
loop, and this can be done successfully by sending out weekly, informative emails,
making group chats, or simply staying connected through a Facebook group or other
forms of social media. After the event, it is a good idea to send out a thank you for your
time and hard work email to all of the volunteers. This will be helpful because the
volunteers may feel appreciative and loyal so they will volunteer again in the future (if
the event occurs again). It would also be smart to attach a survey asking what worked
and what didnt. This way, for the next year there will be feedback on how to improve
the existing volunteer system for the future.
The festival with be filled various booths giving information about many different
cultures. There will be multiple booths: cultural background of Disney princesses, music
around the word, pin the country on the map, beauty standards around the world, global
holidays, fashion around the world, and much more. In the Disney princess booth, there
will be a poster for each princess describing the historical background of her time period
and country that she is from. For example, when describing Snow Whites background,
the poster will have information about Germany during 1550-1680. It will talk about how
Germans during this time valued religion and discussed it in most of their literature and

plays. Another time period that would be discussed is France after 1850. During this
time, the French were very divided and relied heavily on a class system to keep
everyone separated and in their place.
All of the information that I have found researching will be helpful and applicable
to my senior project. I researched a lot about different fundraising techniques because
putting on this festival will cost money. I am hoping to raise about $300 for the festival
and am planning a school community activity night. Also, in order to run the event, I will
need about thirty volunteers. I ill be going to Key Club and Interact to offer service hours
and hopefully bring people in that way, but I will also need adults to volunteer. I will ask
both Boosters and our schools PTSA program to ask for volunteers to work at the
festival. For publicity, I have already made a website for the event, and will soon make
business cards to give to vendors who want to sell their products at the festival. I will
also make an Instagram, a Twitter, a Facebook page and a Facebook event for the
festival to give people information and to help promote the festival. I also plan on going
on our schools broadcasting show, KSSH News, to help promote it and get the word
around school. I hope to use all of these skills that I have researched in order to create
a successful and fun international festival.

Works Cited
"Advertising An Event." Drew University. CollegiateLink, 2016. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
Catherine, Jelimo, Shari Ilsen, Krista B., and Gregg Michaelsen. "5 Ways to Get
Volunteers for Your Next Fundraiser | Engaging Volunteers." Engaging
Volunteers. N.p., 04 Aug. 2016. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.

@EventMB. "How to Find Superstar Volunteers For Your Next Event." E

Event

Manager Blog Comments. N.p., 19 Oct. 2015. Web. 31 Oct. 2016

Claymman, Margie. "22 Ways To Promote Your Fundraising Event." Razoo Foundation
Comments. Razoo Foundation, 12 July 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.

By the Same Token, If the Objective of Your Event Is to Raise Awareness, Youll Have
to Benchmark and Gather Data on Online Social Media Activity/mentions Etc. and
Offline Publicity Again Based on Your Initial Goals. "Event Planning Guide." How To
Plan An Event. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.

How To Plan An Event. Wild Apricot, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2016

@2xdonations. "61 Awesome Fundraising Ideas for Schools [Quick and Easy]." Double
the Donation. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.