Kennedy IB Students Host Cherry Blossom Festival

On Friday, April 20, students in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at John F. Kennedy High School participated in a Cherry Blossom Festival celebrating Japanese culture.  The festival, designed and led by seniors in the program, was in honor of the bicentennial of the D.C. festival, which commemorates Japan’s gift of cherry blossom trees to the United States as a gesture of friendship. 

Students at the Kennedy festival learned and practiced Japanese brush painting and Japanese calligraphy, led by IB Biology teacher Dr. JoAnn Keene, and learned to create origami and haiku in workshops led by IB seniors.  Mariko Tashiro-Fanwar and Wann Fanwar, parents of one of the IB ninth graders, taught students how to roll sushi, along with several other volunteers from the local Japanese-American community.  Many students had never tasted it before, and were excited by the opportunity.  In addition, students had the opportunity to try on giant padded sumo suits for some mock-combat, under the supervision of IB History teacher Michael Connors.  Even our principal, Dr. Eric Minus, participated in several of the activities. 

All four grade levels of the program participated in what will be the first of an annual spring cultural festival produced by the seniors of the program.  In the spirit of Japan’s gift of cherry blossom trees to the US, this year’s senior diploma candidates designed and planted a garden around the school marquee on Randolph Road, including a small Japanese maple tree in honor of the first graduating class of Kennedy’s IB program.