Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUnified) teachers held their fifth annual Ethnic Studies Festival at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) on April 29, 2026. The five schools that attended were Dos Pueblos High School, San Marcos High School, Santa Barbara High School, La Colina Junior High School, and Goleta Valley Junior High School.
SBUnified teachers had been meeting monthly since the start of the 2025-26 school year to plan the event.
“The purpose of this festival is to celebrate the Ethnic Studies department and the effort students have been putting into this course,” said Maria Lorenzano, an Ethnic Studies and Mexican-American Literature teacher at SMHS. “Ethnic studies wasn’t always a part of SBUnified, and now we have it, and we want to keep it and celebrate all those moments.”
In addition, the festival is meant to showcase students’ work from schools around the district and give a preview of the Ethnic Studies program for students not already in high school or those unaware of the program.
“I think especially with so many things being terrible in the world, adults love to see kids who are a beacon of hope for the future,” said Hannah Krieshok, an Ethnic Studies and Innovate teacher at DPHS. “I hope that students feel celebrated for the work they’re doing, and that they recognize how awesome they are for taking such a challenging topic and learning about it and being committed to that.”
Artnelson Concordia, the SBUnified Instructional Support Specialist for Ethnic Studies, said the program brings the Santa Barbara community together with education and raises awareness on the history of groups that haven’t “traditionally gotten attention,” including the Black, Chumash, Asian-American, Chicanx, and Latinx communities.
The festival featured various activities, such as pin-making, jewelry-making, plant-pot painting, seed-planting, a photobooth, face painting, piñata-making, decorating and cutting out a low rider, and viewing student work and Santa Barbara Public Library books.
“I hope [people that attend] have the opportunity to see the different resources we have available in our community, but also to have fun,” Lorenzano said. “Enjoy the various activities we organize, and check out some of the student work. Appreciate the work other students have put into this course.”
While the coordinators said that there are challenges that come with organizing events like this, such as scheduling complications and venue size requirements, they agree that they enjoy working with locals and volunteers, the solidarity that the event brings, and bringing the Santa Barbara community together.
“Teaching and learning is happening on other sites, but a lot of our young people don’t know their peers in other high schools,” Concordia said. “So it’s a way for us to come together in the same space, having experienced similar teaching and learning, and to celebrate and enjoy.”
As attendance increased from 300 to 350, the coordinators agreed that SBCC was a “great place” to host the festival. Additionally, there is an outlook of the Santa Barbara Channel, and the buildings are painted with murals that fit the theme of the festival.
“Just a reminder: We’re stronger together, we’re wiser together, we’re healthier and happier together, and we’re safer,” Concordia said. “We all come from different places, we are different in many ways, but we hope that everyone that attends [the festival] sees that we have more in common.”
