Rochester International Academy celebrates United Nations Day

Rochester, New York – On Monday, the Rochester International Academy (RIA) celebrated all of its students’ cultures by taking advantage of United Nations Day.

The day the UN was established more than 75 years ago with the intention of preserving world peace is recognized as United Nations Day.

RIA is a school in the Rochester City School District that only enrolls foreign-born kids. On Monday, in observance of UN Day, school administrators urged students to dress in the national attire of their homes to rejoice and share the wealth!

It’s crucial to Mary Andrecolich-Montesano-Diaz, the principal of RIA, to take the time to respect her students’ cultures because that is what distinguishes RIA from other schools.

“We hope for global unity and peace around the world. At RIA, I’ve always said ‘if the world could be like RIA’ because we’re all like family. We have many different cultures. We talk about unity and how important it is to respect other cultures and so that’s what we are doing today,” Andrecolich-Montesano-Diaz said. “All of my students and brand new to the country and it’s really important for them to remember their culture and on this day, United Nations day, it gives them an opportunity to show off and be proud of their culture and we start with clothing but that’s not the only part of the culture, we celebrate all parts of who they are. We welcome them.”

In order to ensure that parents, regardless of the language they speak, are involved in their child’s education, RIA also hosts monthly town hall meetings in the primary languages of students’ families.