Each year our Leadership for Diversity Team, led by Mrs. Pat Harris ’62, holds diversity afternoons for each class level, spread out over the year. The student team leads these afternoons for their classmates to facilitate a dialogue about issues in the world, and relevant topics for the timing of their high school journey. Earlier this month, the first diversity afternoon of the year took place, bringing together the junior class to participate in sessions and discussions on the topics of bias, cultural assumptions, racism, ethnicity, and privilege.
What is diversity? Diversity is the practice of including/involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds. The Leadership for Diversity Team has held an important role in our Ursuline mission through its leadership and service to our school community. This year’s team is made up of 12 juniors and seniors, who meet once a week before school to prepare for diversity afternoons, plan programming, and foster conversations and learning. It is important to shed light on a life different from your own and provide yourself with a new perspective. When you contrast your struggles, needs and values with someone else’s, you can really begin to comprehend where an individual is coming from and empathetically understand their attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs at a deeper level. Diversity means acknowledging that our differences make a strong, beautiful, global community.
