On Friday, January 23, the upper school will be celebrating diversity day!

“Our Diversity Club, sponsored by Ravi Pillalamarri and me, is proud of the schedule that we designed for the day.” Andreanna Annis, US French teacher, and sponsor of Diversity Club, said. We are also very thankful for the presenters who have accepted to share their expertise.”

The theme for this year is unity through diversity. First, each advisory will make a craft project about how they are different and then all advisories will come together and express their project.  Next, everyone will glue their project onto the same paper in order to express the theme, unity through diversity. Each grade will follow their advisor throughout the day, rotating through sessions A, B, C and D. Grades will be subdivided by advisory to enhance deeper conversation.

Session A is all about defining the isms and systems of oppression led by Nicole Masole from the breakthrough office. Each grade level will be subdivided by advisory to enhance deeper conversation.  Dr. Derald Wing Sue, Professor of counseling phycology at Columbia University, will lead activity B. The session will cover micro assaults, invalidations, and insults. Rudi Flores from Breakthrough will also help lead this session. Students will conclude by writing a personal poem entitled “I Am.”

In Conversation C, Ms. Marcy Paul, Isaac Narret’s ’17 mother will speak about language, images, and historical context. As a community, we get caught up in trends and don’t understand historical context, so this will help us understand how our words can hurt others.  The last activity is from the Student Diversity Leadership Conference that many of Diversity Club members attended.  Those who attended this conference, Jeff Avena ’15, Natalia Avila ’17, Joe Breedlove ’17, Michael Chan ’18, Adele Elkind ’16, Michael Estrada ’15, CJ Landrum ’18, Tedros Samson ’16, and Ava Shen ’16 will lead the activity by getting everyone moving and sharing personal experiences. As a culturally diverse school, it’s important for us to be aware of the things we say to other people. The diversity club, teachers, and students are all very excited for this day.