The Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL) housed a layout of books with characters of mixed-heritage.
Mixed Heritage Awareness Week (MHAW) is an annual event organized by MOSAIC, Andover’s mixed heritage affinity group, and is an opportunity for students to come together, have discussions, and help raise awareness for their mixed identities and experiences. First hosted 11 years ago, the week aims to celebrate and raise awareness about mixed heritage by focusing on fostering community through various events.
According to Kara Horne ’27, the meeting which featured a streaming of “The Sun Is Also a Star” was an intellectually and culturally curious experience. After watching the film she had the opportunity to engage in various discussions with other students of diverse identities.
“I think [MHAW] teaches people who do not identify as mixed heritage about what it means to be part of the MOSAIC community… I really enjoyed [the] meeting because we watched [a] movie and had the opportunity and a lot of time to discuss it, so I feel like it was a great meeting overall,” said Horne.
Similarly, Aya Murata, faculty advisor for MOSAIC, spoke on how the goal of MHAW was to encourage a better sense of what the mixed heritage experience can be, among students who do not identify as mixed heritage. Murata also noted how she believes that an extremely important concept to understand is that there is no singular mixed heritage experience.
“[MHAW] is [so] that people who don’t identify as mixed heritage have a better sense and understanding of what that mixed heritage experience, its joy, and challenges, are like. Also, [to] understand that there is no singular mixed heritage experience… but that we all come to our mixed heritage slightly differently, while also facing some of the same challenges and joys together,” said Murata.
Murata continued by describing how MOSAIC, as an affinity group, hosts monthly meetings and provides multiple interactive events and discussions to connect the mixed community at Andover. Furthermore, Murata underlined the importance of being open-minded and unbiased when engaging with MHAW and the mixed heritage community at Andover.
“[MOSAIC is] an affinity group that meets once every month as a space to come together, whether it is a fun and lighter activity to just build community, or read articles and watch different film clips to come together as a community to discuss.” Murata reiterated, “There is no singular mixed heritage experience.”
Serafina Shin-von Nordenflycht ’25 explained her role as a board member in the affinity group MOSAIC and what a typical group meeting looks like outside of MHAW. Shin-von Nordenflycht also described the group’s goals for the Andover community in raising awareness about mixed students and their experiences.
“As a board member, we don’t have Co-Presidents, so we function as a team that works to bring MHAW and meetings together. So normally that involves watching media and reading books and then taking snippets of it to prepare to talk to people about it… Because our community is so big and diverse, we always try to involve our club as much as possible,” said Shin-Von Nordenflycht.
Shin-Von Nordenflycht also acknowledged that being a part of MOSAIC helped not only herself but others in realizing and re-affirming their own mixed identity. She stated that by assisting others in recognizing their mixed heritage, she has often seen herself in other students’ experiences.
“[MOSAIC] has really made me come to terms with my own identity. I think one of the hardest things is knowing how to balance being [mixed], especially for me as I’m a student of color but I’m also a white person, so there are two very different sides that I have to balance. Being a board member has not only helped me to help other people and mentor other people to find out who they are and help them understand their journey, but it’s also reflected back on me and I can see myself in other people’s experiences even if they’re different from me,” said Shin-von Nordenflycht.
Shin-von Nordenflycht noted that by hosting MHAW, she hopes that students on campus who identify as mixed will be encouraged to join and participate in more MOSAIC-led activities.
“The mixed community is one of the fastest growing communities [in the United States] so there are hundreds of kids on this campus that qualify as being mixed, and so [they] should join and could join if they wanted to. So join if you like!” said Shin-Von Nordenflycht.
