Niya Plynton, 4, whose mother works at Shea, wears a dashiki from Mali. Below right, Amina Tahawar paid tribute to her Pakistani ancestry with a dish of biryani, chicken with rice. Below left, Kenneth Velasquez’s figurine from the Festival of Flowers in Medellín, Colombia. Providence Journal photos/ Sandor Bodo

PAWTUCKET Students created a global village with dinner, music, dance and trinkets from many homelands at last week’s International Night at Charles E. Shea Senior High School. The school is a mini United Nations, with a student body drawn from more than 50 countries.

Students warmly offered home cooking, but most were quick to credit their mothers. Consider the sweetness of the joint India-Pakistan table at which two young women shared food and friendship — Reena Mistry, a junior with Indian roots, and her friend, 2007 Shea grad Amina Tahawar of Pakistani ancestry. Mistry served an Indian dish of fried onions with chick peas and spices. Tahawar offered biryani, chicken with rice.

While celebrating their multicultural diversity, there was also great enthusiasm on the part of other students who displayed artifacts from their homelands. Kenneth Velasquez, a junior and first generation Colombian-American, showed off a delicate Festival of Flowers statue from a celebration he attended, and thoroughly enjoyed, in his dad’s hometown of Medellín.

His father, Gustavo, was also present. Kenneth proudly wore the poncho that he would wear if he were in Medellín. He added that if in Colombia, he’d “be growing perfect coffee beans, be a big fan of soccer and eating plates of eggs and empanadas.”

Instead, he joined his schoolmates in the Pawtucket cafeteria where the walls feature map after map celebrating the many countries from which the students come. The paintings were done about five years ago, so they’re probably due for an update, said school volunteer Gary Gabriel.

The school has about 1,200 students representing places around the globe including Brazil, France, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Poland, Ghana, Liberia, the Ukraine and many more. The largest population has Cape Verdean ancestry, according to principal Christopher T. Lord. Twenty-five different languages are spoken at the school, he said.

Students and Shea staff, who were just as enthusiastic as the teens, helped serve and mingled as well. Alicia Procter was quick to greet visitors. She works for the nonprofit College Crusade of Rhode Island as a high school adviser at Shea. She worked on the event, along with the Foreign Language Department, and student leadership. The team included Antoinette Archibault, a senior. She said it all started with a sign-up sheet and 16 people pledging to bring food to represent their ethnic background. Her mother made a tray of lasagna for the dinner, which began five years ago and has become a regular event.

Some of the food represented familiar ethnic fare including American chop suey, tandoori chicken, Shepherd’s pie, Portuguese sweet bread, French crêpes and kugel. There were also the less familiar options including pastels (a Cape Verdean dumpling) and a Portuguese dish made with tuna and hard boiled eggs.

Sophomore Levidson Andrade talked about cachupa, a slow-cooked stew of beans, pork and onions that is a special meal from his Cape Verde heritage. You don’t eat it every night, but he said his parents just had it three weeks ago.

Sisters Mariana and Fernanda Dias came to Pawtucket from Brazil. Mariana, a freshman, has been in the United States for a year while Fernanda, a sophomore, arrived only two months ago. A poster celebrated their culture, describing a feijoada, a stew made with pork and beans, and a caipirinha, the Brazilian cocktail made with sugar cane liqueur.

After a dinner where most of the food disappeared as only teens can make happen, there were performances of dancing and steel drum playing. If only world peace were as easy to achieve as a night of food and fun for a global village of Pawtucket teens.

gciampa@projo.com