Aria Alva ’22 and Annemieke Exton ’21
Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, the students involved with diversity work at Oak Knoll have not let their persistence be dampened in their endeavors to make our community a more educated, safe, and accepting place. Students of color currently face many unique obstacles in our community that fellow classmates do not. Individual teachers, alumni, and the administration have been working together in order to address these issues as well.
While sitting down with Ms.Wilson, many behind-the-scenes efforts that have been taking place at Oak Knoll, greatly due to the courage and dedication of alumnae, were revealed. Earlier this year, a group of alumnae wrote a letter of recommendations to address the struggles students of color face. Prior to this letter, Oak Knoll had already given a group of teachers a study grant before school ended last year to help address issues the administration saw in our community. They have created what is now a lengthy document of changes that need to be made, including diversifying their curriculum and including the truthful history of Cornelia Connelly’s slaveholding. Both the alumnae recommendations and the work of this group are currently being made into a timeline to implement these changes by the highest priority. This year, for the first time, fifteen members of our community including two board members, both division heads, Ms. Landis, Ms. Wilson, and our Director of Enrollment Management participated in Far Brook School’s Widening the Lens Program. Ms. Wilson explained, “ It is an annual full-day conference that Far Brook hosts during which school “pods” attend to discuss DEIJ topics with each other and members of other schools.” Oak Knoll has also partnered with The National SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) project which is an organization that provides teachers with DEIJ training. As of now, both Lower School teachers and Upper School teachers have participated in a workshop. Aside from this workshop, smaller SEED cohort groups are being formed so that teachers can go through a deeper year-long training program. Many individual teachers have also been seeking and receiving their own professional development through webinars, books, and articles. Another exciting development for students of color is that the administration has also been looking to hire a new full-time head of DEIJ. Ms.Wilson, Mr. Saburn, and Mrs. Landis have all been heavily advocating for the new head to be a person of color! The new DEIJ head will hopefully be hired next year. Lastly, Ms. Wilson shared that the administration has created a DEIJ page on the website over the summer to “make a place to hold on to everything that’s happened in the past and our current efforts.” This webpage will be consistently updated as changes continue to be implemented.
Black Scholars, run by Kasey Lewis ’21, Desiree Mitchell ’23, and Virginia Luna ’23, is one of the many clubs at Oak Knoll that discuss both the importance of diversity and its various forms. Through conversations about issues that specifically or disproportionately affect the Black community, the club hopes to foster an inclusive and diversity-oriented culture at Oak Knoll. We heard from a senior leader of Black Scholars, Kasey Lewis ’21, on what the club has meant to her throughout her career at Oak Knoll and in the wake of a pandemic. She admitted that “having clubs meet virtually has been a little bit of an adjustment because I feel it can take away from the sense of community and connection that comes with meeting in person. However, I think that everyone has become used to it and despite the changes, we still have great energy this year.” Conversation allows us to be exposed to different perspectives, and hearing those perspectives is especially important to foster understanding about the struggles of minority groups in the U.S., as well as growth within our communities both at school and beyond. Kasey’s favorite aspect of Black Scholars, after seeing it grow and change from freshman to senior year, is “how open everyone is to participate in discussions and how dedicated everyone is to the club.”
Asian American and Pacific Islander’s Club is being co-run by Clara Liang ’22 and Samantha Petrucco ’22 this year. Petrucco and Liang were both inspired to take on this position of leadership to educate students on the Asian/Pacific Islander community as well as share their own culture and experiences. Liang shared, “As someone who has experienced racism and self-identity issues because of my ethnicity, I want to help those who may be going through the same thing.” The presidents are looking forward to exploring media created by Asians and Pacific Islanders, learning from the current members of their club, and discussing the rising racism against Asian Americans due to the pandemic. Petrucco’s hope for the club is for it to “provide a sense of unity between people who do not identify as Asians/Pacific Islanders and those who do through discussion.” Her favorite aspect of the club is the many topics and different perspectives covered by the group. Liang says her goal for the club’s impact is to bring awareness to Oak Knoll that racism (in general) is still present in our community. “I want to shed light on stereotypes that provoke racism and hate speech towards other students,” Liang states.
SHADES, a club celebrating all minorities of color, is being run by Leslie Atathualpa ’22 and Maura Ferrigno ’21. The community of SHADES is very important to Atahualpa and she says that she was inspired to lead the club because, “I remember trying out a lot of different clubs my freshman year, but the one club that I never stopped going to was SHADES because I felt safe and I found myself feeling at home there.” Her goal for SHADES this year is to bring awareness about not only issues in the community, but global issues as well surrounding racial, social, and economic situations. She says, “I hope that by attending the SHADES meetings, the OKS community will be more aware of the real problems in the world and how most of them can also affect us if we do not do anything.” Atahualpa is most looking forward to exploring topics the group has not talked about and says her favorite thing about the club is how “everyone can share their honest opinions and freely express themselves.”