SDLC/POCC empowers D-E community

1/5/2017

From Wednesday, December 7th through Saturday, December 10th, six D-E students and six faculty/staff attended NAIS People of Color Conference (PoCC) and the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) hosted at Georgia, Atlanta this year. The 12 delegates were selected after a competitive review from D-E's Diversity Committee and at the conference, they were richly rewarded. Through rigorous workshops and inspiring speeches from the speakers like TED Speaker Bryan Stevenson and Colgate University professor John D. Palmer, the 12 D-E delegates were empowered to take a lead in advancing equity, social justice, and making D-E a better community for all.

Student Diversity Leadership Conference - "Dreaming Out Loud: Waking Up to a New Era of Civil Rights"

At the Omni CNN Center Hotel, students were engaged in a curriculum that was base on a large and small group sessions design to strengthen the attendees to develop effective cross-cultural communication skill and development of effective strategies for social justice. At the last day of the conference, the students joined the POCC attendees to lead a discussion. The 6 students from D-E were Patrick Mosquera '17, Adrian Evans '17, Jalen Watson '18, Amina Sadural '18, Britney Burns '18, and Cameron Janssens '19. Director of Student Activities Maya Gunaseharan '08 attended the conference as a facilitator.

People of Color Conference - "Advancing Human and Civil Rights –Fulfilling the Dream Together"

5 faculty/staff spent 3.5 days at the Georgia World Congress Center nourished with leadership and management workshops, affinity group sessions, and speeches from exceptional guest speakers. This year attendees were English teacher Diane Christian, Lower School music teacher Mary Heveran, Director of Alumni Relations Maria Sanchez Garner '78, Grade 10 Dean Lisa Wittner, and art teacher Marisol Diaz.

POCC attendee English teacher Diane Christian shares her experience:

Faculty and students participating in POCC and SDLC get the unique experience of meeting and interacting with an extremely diverse group of people from independent schools across the country. Through a series of workshops and meetings, faculty and staff exchange ideas and gain knowledge about what it means to be a person of color or work with a person of color and/or gender difference, in an independent school. This exchange of ideas is crucial to understanding others, and it is not limited to people of color; there are many white people who attend this conference and are affected and often changed by the experiences they have at the conference. The students have a rich experience apart from the adult experience, and they meet students from other independent schools and share stories that, as many of our students have said, “…changed their lives”. Being able to come back from the conference and talk about what happened and how it impacted your life is invaluable to our whole school community. Change happens when people are able to discuss personal experiences and feelings, and the conference brings to the forefront what might have been lingering in the back of a student or faculty member’s head. The conference gives you permission to be your most honest self.

POCC/SDLC gave the D-E delegates the opportunity to fully understand their unique experiences and empowered them to take a lead in advancing D-E to truly embrace and honor diversity in the community.

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