When an outside observer looks at the demographics of Central, the first that comes to most’s mind is the word “white.” On the website niche.com, which rates schools and universities across the country, Central has an A+ rating in academics, teachers, clubs and activities, college prep, and health safety but only has a B- grade in diversity. On the most recent Illinois report card, the school’s students were 71.4 percent white. 

Indian Culture club was recently started and meets every other week and has only done a couple of team bonding events this year as it was founded a month ago, but has big plans for the 2018-2019 school year.

“We plan on hosting a cricket event, doing yoga, and watching Bollywood movies,” said Tara Tekkey, junior and club treasurer. “So far it’s exciting to see how many people attend the bi-weekly club meetings, especially since not all of the members are Indian, we all get to experience an amazing and interesting culture together.”

The club came together after several students noticed a distinct lack of Indian culture throughout the school, despite there being more than 300 students in the school who consider themselves Indian, according to the report card. 

“Some other students in the school and myself felt that there was no evident Indian community in our school and thought this club could solve the problem,” said Anshul Sankaran, junior and club president. “We want to celebrate Indian culture while also creating a community for students in the school.”

While this school year is wrapping up, the club plans to kick its efforts into high gear starting at the beginning of the next school year. Other members of the club’s executive board include Vice President Harini Loganathan, Marketing Managers Aparna Srinivasan and Aman Natt and Treasurer Shreya Sharma.