By Sophie Chiang ‘23 and Mandy Hui ‘23
On January 24th, 2022, St. Mark’s students and faculty enjoyed a day off from classes to attend two workshops led by professional speakers for Community and Equity day. This year, the school worked to make the workshops smaller, which proved to be more interactive and engaging. Some of these workshops included Disrupting Racial Bias and Micro Indignities, How to be Gender Aware, Detangling the Model Minority Myth: How MMM is used as a racial wedge between Asian and Black Communities, Understanding Power Dynamics and Personal Agency, and many more. A full list of workshops can be found here.
Dr. Daves reflected in an all-school email that “Leading Lives of Consequence Journeys for [him] means witnessing and learning how to speak confidently about yourself and others with a sense of purpose and heart; it means that you possess the ability to coordinate learning experiences about your social identities and others in a sustained and meaningful way; it means that you are at ease with embracing differences because you recognize the value of building understanding from differences and valuing empathy.”
C&E day truly was a day of self-reflection about one’s own identity and an opportunity to learn about and embrace others’ differences. It was about opening our eyes up to issues that may have never crossed our minds and taking a stance to address them.
After C&E day, a lot of dialogue surrounding it was about the shallowness of C&E work. Although the keynote and workshop speakers were outstanding and spoke extremely impactfully, one day a year with just two workshops seemed very performative to many. It is absolutely the right step in the right direction, but perhaps it is not enough just yet. Lots of students called for more C&E work to fully open up student and faculty eyes to embracing diversity and inclusion and being prepared enough to hold discussions surrounding it. One student shared his opinions, stating he believed that “the way to continue to make progress is to be engaged in C&E work on a persistent basis. We are never going to solve racism or discrimination. However, by learning more about one another and our identities, we can know how to respond and break down the pillars that uphold systemic racism and oppression.”
Many students share the same beliefs, thinking that St. Mark’s should continue doing more C&E work to enhance the voices of those that feel underrepresented, allow everyone to self-reflect on their own actions, and to help us all move forward to create a more inclusive and diverse community. Darius Wagner ‘23 perfectly encapsulates the goal of C&E day by saying, “change mustn’t only come from the hands or voices of a few, but a collection of diverse voices and ideas that are provided with routes to turn these ideas into tangible action steps.”
However, there were also sentiments that this year’s C&E day was more successful than the years prior. Louise He ‘23, a pathways prefect who helped with planning, proudly stated that “I feel that the workshops this year were more successful because they were led by professionals and the school was right to implement that.” In these small changes, students can see that St. Mark’s has made a visible effort to advance towards a more inclusive and understanding community with new initiatives, through taking accountability and striving to do better. However, we mustn’t stop now, but instead forge ahead into a future where all voices, no matter how small, feel heard. As students, we are thrilled to see the school implement such changes.
