A Melting Pot Cooked to Perfection.

• Author: REZAPOUR, MONA
• Position: Student from Iran describes her attendance of University High School in Los Angeles, California

LOS ANGELES--After changing in the bathroom, I felt like another person. The homecoming parade was about to start, and I was wearing a white, puffy skirt and a shirt with colorful patterns. I couldn't believe that, although I'm from Iran, I was actually going to be on the Latino Student Union's float. As the club members saw me, they all smiled. One of my Latino friends said she felt proud that her culture and traditions had brought two people from opposite sides of the world so close together. It was then that I realized why I will always remember University High School.

It's that blending of cultures that I think makes my high school unlike any other. That diversity has really helped me come out of the shell I was in after moving to the U.S. in middle school and having to learn English. I live in a mostly white neighborhood by the school in West Los Angeles, but students from across L.A. can attend. As a result, the school reflects the population of the entire city.

Walking down the halls, I hear different languages like different notes in a piece of music. Students here speak more than 40 languages, including Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, French, Indian, Hebrew, Armenian, and Iran's language, Farsi. Of the 2,400 students, 76 percent are from minority groups and 514 come from other countries.

The school gives out a vibe that welcomes everybody. We do have two main cliques--the nerds and the jocks, which you probably have in every high school--but I don't see the ethnicities breaking into isolated cliques. In the group I hang out with, I have Asian friends, friends from India and Pakistan, African-American and white friends, just a wide variety.

The only time I've experienced friction is in history...