While many students look forward to Carlmont High School’s annual Heritage Fair as a celebration of culture and identity, this year’s event has also highlighted ongoing conflicts between the fair’s timing and students’ extracurricular commitments.
Heritage Fair is held during a busy stretch of the school year, and overlaps with major extracurricular activities, namely the Distributive Education Clubs of America’s (DECA) State Career Development Conference (SCDC). For some students, this overlap has forced difficult choices between representing the culture of their club and maintaining commitments they have spent months preparing for.
In response to these concerns, Carlmont’s administration explored rescheduling the Heritage Fair, as it did last year due to the same time conflict. Principal Gay Buckland-Murray said that conversations were held with administrators and campus leaders to move the event to a time that would allow broader participation.
“We talked about the timing of the Heritage Fair at great length over two different administration meetings, and this year, we were not able to move the date,” Buckland-Murray said.
Despite these discussions, the timing ultimately remained unchanged, leaving students to navigate conflicts on their own. According to the principal, scheduling constraints and a set calendar limited the flexibility to make adjustments this year.
For students planning to compete in the DECA SCDC competition, this conflict put pressure on them. Some students chose to step away from the Heritage Fair entirely in order to remain committed to their other activities.
“I’ve been working on my DECA written event that I’m presenting at States for two years, compared to the dance that I’ve been working on for a few months,” said Melissa Hong, a junior at Carlmont who is involved in both the Heritage Fair and DECA.
That decision was not made lightly. Students described feeling torn between personal identity and long-standing responsibilities, noting that both mattered deeply to them. For some, missing the Heritage Fair meant losing a rare opportunity to express their love for their identity to the school community.
“Giving up the Heritage Fair was hard because my team and I had already started working on a dance that we were going to do,” Hong said.
Other students attempted to balance both by splitting their time between the Heritage Fair and the DECA competition. However, this plan ensures that the student would not be able to attend a key part of the DECA competition.
“Instead of going to the entirety of the DECA trip, I will only be attending Saturday and Sunday, meaning that I will be sacrificing my role play,” said Jessica Sun, another junior at Carlmont who is involved in both the Heritage Fair and DECA.
However, both approaches came at a cost. Students reported increased stress, fear of falling behind, and concern about letting teammates or group members down.
“What made the decision the hardest was not wanting to let my teammates down because I have quite a few teammates in Heritage Fair, and a lot of people that I’m really good friends with as well,” Hong said.
The conflict has raised broader questions about accessibility and planning. Students report feeling left out of the planning process for these big events, with many pointing out the benefits of a system that lets students and clubs send important dates, such as competitions, ahead of time, allowing time to move events around.
“We’ve never really had the chance to talk to the board beforehand about the Heritage Fair timing. Once we find out, it’s always way too late to tell them to change, so it would definitely be great for the students to be able to have input,” Sun said.
Administrators acknowledge that the situation reflects a larger challenge within school scheduling. With limited days available and a growing number of student activities, conflicts are becoming increasingly common.
Despite these challenges, school leaders emphasized the importance of the Heritage Fair and have expressed interest in continuing discussions about how to improve participation moving forward.
“I’m hopeful that next year we’ll be able to be more conscientious about other pressures on student time when we schedule the Heritage Fair,” Buckland-Murray said.
For students, the issue goes beyond one event. Many said the experience revealed how structural decisions can shape who can participate in campus cultural spaces.
As Carlmont continues to expand its extracurricular offerings, students and staff alike are left considering how traditions like the Heritage Fair can evolve to better fit the time allotted for students.
“If I could participate in both activities and not have to give up parts of either one, then I absolutely would,” Hong said.
