Students at P.S. 244 in Flushing, Queens heard from a polar explorer and a City Council member on a recent morning — grown-ups who showed them the kinds of futures that they can have, too.

“It felt great. I never, I never really saw many Asian people do all that stuff,” second grader Kaira Wong said.

“I never saw a real polar explorer, because I only saw one on the internet,” second grader Haru Torrzoza said.

It’s part of the school’s commitment to teaching students about their identity — a unit of study at the school that goes beyond just special events for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

“Being in Flushing, downtown Flushing in Queens, we have over 90% of our students that are of Asian American background. So it’s important for us to find opportunities to lean into that and to have them create opportunities to learn about their heritage and culture and background,” Bob Groff, the school’s principal, said.

The school’s identity unit was created in partnership with the Asian American Education Project, and helped put in place by City Councilmember Sandra Ung and the teachers’ union.

“I like that we get to learn about each other and what we do and different celebrations,” second grader Kaia Woo-Yeung said.

Stewart Kwoh, co-executive director of the Asian American Education Project, says students are eager to go beyond an introduction to Asian-American and Pacific Islander history.

“It gives students a sense of pride, a sense of belonging. In fact, our graphic novel, volume one, and Volume two is entitled, Fighting to Belong. And so we hope that the students can understand their place in American society — sometimes they have to fight to belong, but they do belong. They are Americans. And we want them to be able to feel comfortable being Americans, but having and maintaining their Asian cultural heritage,” he said.

Stephanie Graziano, who teaches social studies and English as a new language, says students get the opportunity to see themselves in their lessons.

“The goal of this was to really have the students think about themselves, their cultural identity, their traditions, their holidays, and really focus on them having dreams and goals,” she said.

For the students, that’s something special.

“It feels like — that I’m sharing my whole self to someone, that like my whole my whole culture and, and, and what it means to me and all the things I do in my identity,” Kaira said.

“I can learn about other people’s culture and my culture,” second grader Kevin Xu said.

“What they eat and what they do and what they wear and what kind of things they do, like daily. What do they, what do they use to get to somewhere or a car or a bicycle? It’s very exciting to learn more things about other people,” second grader Yuna Zheng said.