STUDENTS EXPLORE DIVERSE CULTURES.

Byline: ERIC LEACH Staff Writer

MOORPARK -- With the school year starting next week at Moorpark College, the campus Multicultural Club is gearing up with plans for ethnic dinners, films and visits to the Museum of Tolerance, the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp, the headquarters of Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers union and the African-American town of Allensworth, Calif.

``We're very excited about the new school year,'' said Mike Johnson, the club's faculty adviser, who has worked with about 250 students in the group since it was formed in 2004.

``We've got everybody -- Italians, Japanese, blacks, Mexicans, Mormons, Chinese, Muslims,'' Johnson said. ``A lot of these kids come from other countries. ... It's basically enriching people's lives. We want to know how other people think.''

The group has scheduled its biggest fundraiser of the year, a Sept. 22 golf tournament at Moorpark Country Club to raise money for the group's gatherings, trips and scholarship program.

The club started with about 15 students in 2004 and has since involved 250 students in its activities over the past two years, Johnson said. Many have left Moorpark and gone on to four-year colleges or found jobs, some in foreign countries.

Although Southern California is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world, Johnson said, people who live here often isolate themselves with others in their own cultures.

``We've got different enclaves of people here. We have so many people who haven't really experienced people of other cultures, other than just seeing them in a store,'' he said. ``We still don't interact enough to make a difference.''

Johnson and his club members also participate with other groups on campus in the college's Multicultural Day held in the spring, one of the biggest events of the year on campus.

Last spring, the Multicultural Day featured a lecture on ethnomathematics, a belly-dancing class, a boomerang demonstration, Japanese paper-making, the history of henna body art, mariachi music, Chicago blues, yoga and a lecture on Vietnamese medicine.

Moorpark students active in the club seem to recognize the world is growing smaller every day because of technology.

Jung-Sun ``Karen'' Lee, 21, of Simi Valley is from South Korea and graduated from Moorpark earlier this year after serving as the club's vice president. She will now be attending California State University, Northridge, and said she hopes to get involved there in multicultural groups.

``Even though Moorpark College is predominantly white, the students all are different,'' Lee said. ``They all have different backgrounds. Some are immigrants or first- or second- generation. ... There's so much to share, but you have to put out an effort. We shared foods, we visited museums, we learned about the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide.''

Once a month, the club has a dinner with a film focusing on a different culture.

In the spring, the Moorpark students will go on a road trip through California to the headquarters of the United Farm Workers in La Paz in Keene, Calif.; to the internment camp at Manzanar, where Japanese-Americans were held captive during World War II; and to the town of Allensworth, founded by African-Americans in the San Joaquin Valley.

The club also gives out scholarships and raised money last year to help victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami.

With all the diversity in the club, Johnson said there are few conflicts.

``It's a comfortable atmosphere,'' he said. `` ... We've got it all.

People interested in information about the club's golf tournament can call [phone] or [phone].

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

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