During FedEx day last year, the Spirit Squad met and discussed ideas to improve Morgan. Sophomore Anadaly Lopez made a proposal to display flags to represent the diverse population of students attending Clinton Public Schools. The flags would represent the countries of origin of students in Clinton Public Schools. 

Anadaly came to the school district at a very young age, not knowing English. She felt excluded at times, and felt as if she had missed opportunities. She believes that Morgan should work on inclusion and representing diversity, since she doesn’t want people to feel the same way that she did.

Even though Spirit Squad did not adopt Anadaly’s proposal, Anadaly did not give up. She worked with the Social Justice Club on a grant for purchasing and displaying flags. The initial idea was to hang flags around the school, but this idea was declined. This is because it would ruin the aesthetics of the modern school, and it would be a fire hazard.

This year, Anadaly and the students of the Social Justice Club went on a field trip to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to celebrate Human Rights Day.  At the UN, students saw a wooden tree that included all the flags of the member nations of the UN. Junior Katie Nguyen, who also went on the trip, thought this was very cool since every country felt represented. She enjoyed the trip, and when they walked in, there was a window that showed a meeting room. They saw delegates in the room debating. Anadaly and the other students thought a tree at Morgan could represent the diverse student body and work with the building’s aesthetics.  Currently, the plan is on hold awaiting approval from the administration.

The Social Justice Club does have a bulletin board by the cafeteria that represents the countries of origin of CPS students. The board displays basic information on each country. Next to the board is a map of the world. The art club and study hall students painted this map created by art teacher Justin Sylvia.  Sophomore Social Justice Club members Anadaly and Camryn Mazzarella marked each country on the map with a star. 

This addition to the school represents Morgan’s motto, “We are Morgan, we are family”. There are over twenty countries represented on the map. Check it out.