She stood up and a hush fell over the crowded room. The excitement in the air was palpable and so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The crowded room belonged to Alice Gatling, the sponsor of the highly anticipated Culture Club. In the crowded room, students perched on the tables and excitedly discussed the potential of a new opportunity.

Culture Club is a new club that begin at Cypress Lakes this year and acts as a way to expose new cultures to the students at Cypress Lakes.

 “Culture Club actually came about after a discussion with my students last year. They wanted to attend a play I was performing in. Somehow it never worked out and everything was too busy. So we started to discuss plays and culture. That’s when we came up with this idea of creating a club where we can attend plays and cultural events and that’s how Culture Club was born,” Gatling said.

Culture is very important to Gatling because, at her family reunion a few years ago,shows she discovered her family is made of different cultures from all over the world.

“Culture is very important to me because is reflective of my life and history. Two years ago I went to my family reunion and when I walked in you would thought I was at the United Nations. Vietnamese, Hawaiians, Polynesians that was there.Germans, Russians, Africans all these individuals make up my family and that’s important it’s what I know. It’s who I am so understanding all the cultures as my family to continue to grow. The different people marrying into our family said to me that it’s time get to know more cultures,” Gatling said.

Gatling hopes her club will allow more students to be exposed to different cultures and have experiences to share with other people around them.

“We live in a time in history where we don’t understand cultures because we really don’t take time to communicate and get to know each other. Social Media doesn’t help us to get to know each other. So at this point to creating relationships and exposing ourselves to more than just us to what we know,” Gatling said.

Culture Club isn’t just for learning about cultures, but also have experiences to have a lifetime and share with other people.

“The purpose of the club if for students to invest in their school, to open themselves to different experiences and share something with their family. In the future, when the students graduate, they have to deal with different cultures. So they need to start getting a running to get along with other cultures,” Gatling said.

Gatling hope for the future of the Culture Club is to be able foster travel experiences with her students.

 “Getting to a place where students can be moving forward or traveling internationally is the biggest goal,” Gatling said.  

 The next club meeting is on Monday October 29 in Room 3010.