2015 Diversity Day speaker Rosetta Lee returned to campus last Wednesday and Thursday to meet with students and faculty members about diversity issues at Choate. Lee’s visit was part of a follow-up discussion based on a diversity survey administered by Choate’s Diversity Education Committee, and Lee met with several student groups, faculty members, staff members, and the Board of Trustees.
The DEC conducted the survey in May in an effort to better understand perceptions of climate and culture on campus, and ultimately ensure that Choate’s campus was on in which everyone felt included. The AIM, or Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism, was administered through the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and made available to students, faculty, staff, current parents, recent alumni and trustees.
Lee’s visit is the second step in this climate assessment process, and her visit provided the opportunity to go beyond the headlines to better understand survey results. Lee’s familiarity with Choate and her expertise in this area made her the ideal candidate to return to campus and help students appreciate difference and respect one another.
The survey, created by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and used by experts and practitioners around the country, was originally developed through a think tank group hosted by NAIS named “Call to Action.” The survey includes questions that are developed to try and measure multiculturalism and diversity at schools. Students respond to the questions by selecting an option on a scale ranging from “completely disagree” to “completely agree.” For example, a question might be, “I feel I can be myself at my school.” The data was returned for this survey last May, and Lee was asked to help interpret the data by talking to students and hearing their stories.
Although Lee was happy to see the enormous amount of energy displayed at last year’s Diversity Day, she treasured her recent opportunity to work with small groups of students and hear their stories. She met with various classes, hosted evening sessions, and met with students during A and B blocks this past Wednesday. During these sessions, Lee talked with students about gender, sexuality, race, socio-economic status, and specific Choate programs, such as the Beyond the Classroom Fund, that feed into various topics relating to diversity. She also met with small groups of faculty members to discuss these topics—in particular, she hosted a workshop on inclusivity in athletics for all interscholastic coaches.
Fraynette Familia ’16 commented, “During the session I realized that those who need to hear about equality and separation issues tend to shy away from the subject, or we don’t address it as a whole campus; we end up neglecting the situation. She inspired me to never let anything slide. Every opportunity to let people in on my experiences, let’s say, as a Latina student, is an opportunity to change someone’s perspective.” Familia, like many others at her shorter session that was held during classes on Wednesday, realized she could do something to make a change in the way Choate sees diversity. Familia also said, “I realized that, as a senior and as president of Hispanic-Latino Forum, it is important to set the tone for the younger students. I would hate for someone to feel excluded because they speak differently, learn differently, or otherwise. Choate is too good of an environment to succumb to ignorance and exclusivity.”
Victoria Li ’16 also attended a session specifically geared towards prefects and felt that she was able to get a sense of the different perspectives held by her fellow prefects on Choate’s diversity and inclusion. Li commented, “It was personally very interesting to hear what my peer prefects had to say and to hear their perspectives on diversity and acceptance on campus. I was inspired to communicate with my peers more.” Li also felt that she was able to walk away with a newfound sense of Choate’s multiculturalism. “I think the session provided a platform for not only Rosetta Lee to learn, but also for me to get a more holistic scope of Choate’s culture. I was able to find out more of how some people thought the school was divided.”
Thao Pham ’16 attended Lee’s Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, which aimed to review the ways schools view diversity and how to obtain a greater sense of inclusivity. According to Pham, “Diversity shouldn’t be superficially viewed based on external appearance and surface-level stereotypes. Diversity applies to everyone, even those that society would deem as regular, since it’s multifaceted and encompasses many aspects of your life. Therefore all those identifiers, such as race, age, socioeconomic status and so forth, should be taken into account.”
According to Lee, “Choate is trying to do big-picture things that allow for more diversity and for being a more aware community. Teachers are working on trying to incorporate that into the curriculum, and students groups are trying to create dialogue and safety in the community.” Moving forward, she would like to see students take the time to fully listen to each other and accept the fact that people have different realities that span an entire spectrum. For Lee, “If someone can tell a story without people telling them they’re being too sensitive or too politically correct, I think we can actually have dialogue and find that good people with good intentions come to a greater understanding of each other’s intentions.”
