Graphic by Yujin Kim ’23/The Choate News
The Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) has collaborated with Choate Rosemary Hall to host eight dialogue sessions that aim to spread critical information in regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This unique experience allows students to learn about topics such as the relationship between the color of one’s skin and culture, microaggressions, learning to balance the influence of social media, colorism in athletics, and more through conversation and lectures.
Since its creation in 2001, the Commission on Diversity in Independent Schools (CODIS) has existed as a program managed by CAIS to inspire people to celebrate the unique and individual experiences every student has within their own school communities. CAIS prioritizes its mission of creating work environments that reflect the diversity of the world in which we live and the schools that we represent, allowing each person to be their true selves in a workplace that values diversity, equity, and inclusion.
CODIS has worked with trustees, administrators, teachers, staff, students, families, and local residents to garner support for its ambitious projects, such as its dialogue session offered to Choate students. Leveraging schools’ diverse student bodies, CAIS hopes to reinforce the importance of valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion within schools. Chair of the Commission on Diversity for Independent Schools (CODIS) Ms. Elisa Del Valle iterated that “the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in education is all about belonging. Students cannot learn if they do not feel comfortable in a classroom setting.” The ability for students to perform to the best of their ability is critical in a setting such as Choate, where students are under constant academic pressure.
In addition, Ms. Del Valle believes in the importance of spreading information about diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools as “they benefit all students.” She elaborated that “an educational institution that holds these values at the forefront of its work not only creates but nurtures a more complex experience for all students to be critical and curious about their learning, their community, and their purpose in contributing to change as agents of it.”
Ms. Del Valle’s push for CAIS to continue collaborating with member schools and other education organizations is a continuation of CAIS’s ambitious mission to foster independence and freedom of choice in education. Other than its collaboration with Choate, CODIS has hosted the annual Connecticut Student Diversity Leadership Conference (CT SDLC) conference to raise awareness about diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging in schools. The Connecticut SDLC conference allowed CODIS to provide social development gatherings for adults, dialogues for students, and workshops for heads of schools and board members to cultivate agents of change to help support one another on their journeys of growth while honoring individualistic differences.
With the prominence of racial microaggressions and their significant impacts on the mental health of young black students, Ms. Del Valle hopes that the programs that CAIS offers to members of CODIS will help inform students of privilege about the struggles that students of color go through daily. She explained, “The fear any student with privilege holds to make a mistake or say the wrong thing also comes at a cost to their wellness,” and that it is crucial that the programs offered by CAIS work towards benefiting everyone in a community by nurturing a sense of belonging and understanding.
