Whether you rock jeans or tights, celebrate Christmas or Lunar New Year, cheer at basketball games or belt out musicals, Amador Valley is a place for everyone. In a school filled with unique backgrounds, tastes, and interests, differences strengthen the community. By embracing and celebrating this diversity, Amador fosters an environment where all students feel seen, heard, and valued.
“Amador’s culture is all about community, and it’s all about bringing together a lot of different groups. I think Donversity is a perfect reflection of that because we were the only school in PUSD to keep the diversity celebration, and I think just the fact that we were able to maintain that event is really special and speaks a lot to our values as a school,” said ASB Treasurer Ariana Luan (‘25).
The Origins of Donversity
In 2016, Pleasanton Unified School District introduced a diversity week, where schools across the district participated in activities celebrating different cultures. Students watched a video and created self-portraits as superheroes, which teachers then displayed in classrooms. However, Amador Leadership teacher Wendy Connelly and former vice principal Nimarta Grewal saw an opportunity to expand the idea to fit Amador’s unique culture.
“Mrs. Grewal came up with the idea, saying, ‘If we just do it for our campus, we’ll make it Donversity.’ …That’s when we kind of took it over and Amador kept [it] going. Donversity became a whole week-long celebration. Also, the dynamics of our school had changed at the time. We were going from a predominantly white campus to a very diverse mixed campus. And there were issues once in a while, and kids weren’t treating each other right. We thought, what better way to deal with this issue than to try to celebrate what makes us different?” said Connelly.
What started as a district-wide event has since transformed into a defining experience for Amador students, reminding them that diversity strengthens connections and builds community.
A Student-Led Celebration
Unlike many school events, Donversity is not just a Leadership-planned activity. In fact, Donversity brings together students from different clubs, organizations, and cultural groups, making it one of the most collaborative celebrations on campus.
“The most important part of the planning process is finding a way to make everyone feel like they’re a part of Donversity. Since it’s not directly planned by leadership, having a lot of people be able to participate in not only being in the events, but the planning of the events is just really cool” said ASB President Taylor Cohn (‘25).
Throughout the week, students engage in spirit days, games, and a rally featuring groups like Korean Culture Club, Bollywood, and Journalism. Unlike events such as the Aloha or Homecoming rally, Donversity isn’t tied to a specific theme or tradition–it exists solely to celebrate students.
“Donversity truly just celebrates our students and everything that makes them awesome on-campus…this is what makes it different and meaningful,” said Connelly.
