Diversity

Glen Urquhart School is committed to the ongoing process of building and sustaining an inclusive and respectful community and culture.  The School strives to provide an educational experience free from prejudice.  We seek to achieve this goal through better understanding and honoring of diversity in its many forms, including those of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, family structure, and physical and learning abilities. Active commitment to this ideal is fundamental to the School’s mission to encourage children, as well as all members of the school community, to respect the rights of all people and value their differences.

Touring Family Diversity Projects Exhibit, IN OUR FAMILY: Portraits of All Kinds of Families, visits Glen Urquhart School.

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

Exhibit Opening and Family Activities

Thursday, October 11

6:00- 7:30 pm

Upper School

Join us to celebrate family, enjoy refreshments, and view the award winning exhibit with your family and friends.

Touring Family Diversity Projects Exhibit, IN OUR FAMILY: Portraits of All Kinds of Families, visits Glen Urquhart School.

IN OUR FAMILY, with photographs by Gigi Kaeser and Interviews Edited by Peggy Gillespie and Rebekah Boyd, celebrates the diversity of family life in 21st century America, introducing the viewers to single-parent families, families living with physical or mental challenges, immigrant families, adoptive families, foster families, divorced families, gay and lesbian-parented families, stepfamilies, multiracial families, multi-generational families, and many others in the family circle.

IN OUR FAMILY travels nationwide schools (K-12), colleges,public libraries, workplaces, places of worship, conferences, museums, and communities nationwide. The exhibit is championed by diversity professionals, families, educators, parents, and all people interested in educating the public about diversity.

Family Diversity Projects (FDP) is a non-profit educational organization founded by exhibit creators, Peggy Gillespie (interviewer/editor) and Gigi Kaeser (photographer). They have created four photo-text exhibits (three of which have been published in book form) to help eliminate prejudice, stereotyping, and harassment of people discriminated against due to race, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, gender, class, and disability. The mission of FDP is to propel forward a world where all families are recognized, valued and fully supported, when “normal” or “different” are words not used to describe family, and where the right to define family is respectfully restored to individuals.

IN OUR FAMILY teaches communities:

• That every family configuration should be appreciated and celebrated
• That there are happy and flourishing families of all types
• That childen and adults can be hurt by sterotyping, prejudice, name-calling, bullying, and teasing

• The importance of actively challenging prejudice

Internet browsers can view images, interviews, and other information about IN

OUR FAMILY and Family Diversity Projects at  www.familydiv.org

Diversity Coffee and Book Discussion – Friday morning, February 3rd at 8:30 (immediately following morning meeting)

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

Please join the Diversity Committee for coffee and conversation about our goals and initiatives followed by informal discussion of the book, Acts of Faith, by Eboo Patel. Acts of Faith is a remarkable account of growing up Muslim in America and testimony to one man’s work to ensure that different religions can and should live side by side.  Share your ideas about diversity and how to build a school community that celebrates and understands differences of faith. See Joanne Crerand for help locating a copy of Acts of Faith. For more information contact Melissa Buchanan buchanan.melissa@yahoo.com or Bob Carroll bbcarroll@gmail.com

Glen Urquhart 8th Grade Students Travel The World to Perform Community Service-Students Visit Honduras, Appalachia and Boston

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

This April, a group of 16 eighth graders and five chaperones visited Rancho Santa Fe, Honduras on a mission that affirms the importance of respecting all peoples and valuing their differences, as well as the need to act responsibly in our community and the world.  In 2004, the school established a relationship with Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, a charitable organization which serves orphaned and abandoned children in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

The students lived and worked in a self-sufficient community in Honduras interacting with children and volunteering in a variety of capacities. Jobs included working on the farm (collecting over 1000 eggs daily), helping in the kitchen (preparing meals for 600 people), making tortillas (3000 daily produced in the tortilla house), maintenance (painting, raking leaves, clearing reservoirs), assisting in the medical clinic, working in the preschool, and doing childcare.

According to Phoebe Hagberg, “I learned that to use the experience to the fullest, you must step out of your comfort zone, whether it means saying something in Spanish that you’re not sure about the meaning of, or talking to the people that you wouldn’t normally talk to.  I also learned that you need to be flexible because no matter what you are doing, if you go into it with an open mind and heart, you will have a good time.”

In addition to the Honduran trip, 15 additional eighth graders visited Appalachia for a one week’s immersion in Binns County, Virginia. Students spent the day in a low-income coal mining town refurbishing and fixing dilapidated houses in the area.  At night they did various cultural events including learning about coal mining, a town dance, and listening to local Appalachian music. The last day of the trip was spent playing and learning at a local Appalachian public high school.  All of the students stayed at

the community center in the heart of the town making all meals together in the community kitchen.

Another four students performed community service right here in Boston. The students served lunch and dinner to over 300 members of Boston’s homeless community at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Tremont Street. They also met volunteers from different communities around Boston. Many of them have been serving meals once a month for years and were eager to explain what makes St. Paul’s Monday Lunch Program so wonderful. They also visited the Cardinal Mederios Center on Isabella Street, a Day Center that provides coffee and meals to its members, all of whom are over 45. This organization also provides other services such as access to health professionals and job counseling. The students handed out brand new socks to the members and helped serve lunch.

On the final day in Boston, the students went to Common Art at Emmanuel Church on Newbury Street to hear a talk by Pastor Mary Eaton on why people become homeless. She explained that people who become homeless don’t have support networks. Sometimes they have broken the bonds. Other times, they just don’t have the people in their lives to help them. Yet, every time we look a homeless person in the eye, we create a connection like the beginning of a spider web, and the more connections that are made, the stronger the web until it becomes the support network. At the Common Art program, the students provided hot coffee, tea, and snacks as well as lunch for members of the homeless community. Then they sat down and created their own works side by side with the guests.  The process of making art is an important escape from life in shelters or on the streets. Art is never thrown out and artists can return whenever they want and find the pieces they have created. It is a wonderful way to bring some sense of joy, value, and community back to individuals who struggle with a variety of circumstances.

According to Natalie Hochbrunn, “Before I went to Boston I would always avoid a homeless person when I walked by them. I did this because I was just copying what everyone else did. When I went to Boston, I learned that it means so much to just look a homeless person in the eye and say hi. When you walk by and ignore them, it gives the person more reason to think that they don’t deserve a home and food.”

Written by Barbara Kelley, Kelly Schwenkmeyer and Gretchen Forsyth

Welcome to Shelbyville Screening

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

On Thursday evening, May 5, Upper School students, parents, and staff attended a screening of the movie, Welcome to Shelbyville, sponsored by the Diversity Committee. The compelling documentary film focuses on residents of the small town of Shelbyville, Tennessee, who must grapple with the challenge of integrating Somalian immigrants into their community. Differences in the dress and religious faith of the Somali refugees lead to many fears and misconceptions in Shelbyville.  The town eventually takes steps to understand and welcome their new neighbors and learns to put aside ungrounded stereotypes and fears. Earlier in the week, 8th grade students completed interviews with immigrants at Operation Bootstrap in Lynn – making the event a timely complement to their learning about immigration.

After the film the audience participated in lively discussion with Gorgui Diaw. Gorgui shared his experiences as a newcomer from Senegal, West Africa. Gorgui’s very first experience in America was as a visiting scholar to GUS in 2000 and 2001.  He shared how the warm and open welcome he received from the GUS community made his first experiences here so positive. Gorgui answered many questions, including those about his faith as a practicing Muslim. In answer to a question about how we can be welcoming of immigrants in our own community, Gorgui reminded us that we only have to look back a few generations to see the immigrants in each of own families. Gorgui told students that, “Recognizing our own immigrant history can help us to be more respectful and embracing of the newcomers in our own communities.”

Glen Urquhart was granted special permission to show the film, Welcome to Shelbyville, prior to its national TV debut thanks to the Be.Cause Foundation and Welcoming America Campaign. The film  is airing on local PBS stations this week through Monday, May 30. To view the trailer go to: http://www.itvs.org/films/welcome-to-shelbyville

Written by Melissa Buchanan

Disibility Awareness Series

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

Each year the Diversity Committee sponsors a forum that contributes to building an inclusive and diverse culture at GUS.  Last year the Diversity Committee sponsored an eight part Disability Awareness Series that was enthusiastically received by students and parents. The film Shooting Beauty and the related photo exhibit may have been the event most visible to GUS parents, but the series provided many other exciting opportunities for students to better understand the world of disabilities.

For instance in April, Upper School students spent an afternoon exploring adaptive technologies. In small groups students handled and experimented with a wide variety of adaptive technologies, such as motorized wheelchairs and computer aided communication devices.They also heard directly from guest presenters who shared the challenges they face and explained how technologies provide essential tools to overcome the obstacles and limitations presented by disabilities. Students enjoyed the opportunity to expend ERB week energy wheeling themselves around the Nance Assembly Room and experimenting first hand with communication and other devices that do not rely on speech, hearing, or mobility.

They were also honored to be joined by the enthusiastic staff and crew of  Ablevision. Ablevision is an award-winning TV program created and produced entirely by people with disabilities. The Ablevision crew spoke to students about their own experiences and about how their work as Ablevision crew members builds on personal strength and ability in spite of challenges. GUS students were clearly inspired by the talented Ablevision crew. Ablevision interviewed students and produced a video that highlights many of the day’s interactive activities and captures students telling us in their own words what they learned about the world and lives of people with disabilities. Click here to view video.

Our thanks to the many presenters who contributed to the Disability Awareness Series: Cotting School, Ablevision, Kelly DeRoche, Karen Keefe, and GUS parent, Kathy Quill. Special thanks to GUS parent and presenter, Joanne Travers, who provided many ideas and contacts that ensured the success of the series.

Want to learn more about the work of the Diversity Committee and about how together we can build a diverse school community that understands and celebrates differences?  Join us February 11 at 8:40 am for a Diversity Coffee.

Written by Melissa Buchanan