Diversity in the DMV Draws 400 to Campus

Students and faculty from nearly 30 independent schools around the region connected around diversity work and challenged their perceptions of identity during today’s Diversity in the DMV conference hosted at St. Andrew’s.
The conference, which included all-day workshops for high school students and faculty, was created by Rodney Glasgow, Director of Diversity and Head of Middle School, and sponsored by the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning. This year alone, close to 900 students and educators have come to St. Andrew’s for diversity programming.

A noted speaker, trainer, and facilitator, Glasgow is nationally recognized as a leader in diversity, equity and social justice work in independent schools. He said the goal of the conference is to bring together students in the region for networking and fellowship, but also to strengthen a community of diversity leaders.
 
“A lot of the students coming to us are doing this work in their schools and it can, at times, feel challenging and isolating,” Glasgow said. “It’s a different experience to do the work with students who want to do it with you.”
 
“It’s like rehearsing the choir - the choir always needs rehearsal,” he added.
 
Participants engaged in several exercises that addressed topics of identity and belonging. In one activity, students expressed the degree of identity crisis they experience in a given situation by ascending the bleachers on Lion’s Court.
 
Research suggests that a student’s sense of belonging shapes their response to adversity in school. In an article he co-authored for the CTTL publication Think Differently and Deeply, Glasgow quotes educational psychology researcher Beatrice M. Ligorio – “learning is not only a cognitive and social experience, but also an identity experience.”
 
“The classroom is a place where your identity could be highlighted in a way that could disrupt your learning,” Glasgow said. “How do I manage what’s going on at an identity level, and what’s going on in this room? How do I maintain a sense of self and move forward in daily tasks?”

Oriane Bui, a junior at Washington International School, said attending diversity conferences have inspired her to start conversations with teachers about creating classroom environments that are more accepting.
 
“It helps you understand how to approach different people and be mindful of their differences – not to erase their differences, but to make them feel like they can be who they want to be,” she said.

Several studies gathered by the Mindset Scholars Network show programs that help reduce concerns about belonging have been effective at reducing achievement gaps.
 
Mind, Brain, and Education science comes into play at Diversity in the DMV, Glasgow said, because participants experience intentional moments of cognitive dissonance.
 
“It’s so important for the brain, to be in situations where what they thought they knew, or thought they felt, was challenged in a deep enough way that brain has to work hard to rectify what they don’t know about the situation,” he said. “That’s where learning happens, and that even happens with identity.”

Tim McCann ’18 said participating in conferences like Diversity in the DMV has been an eye-opening experience.
 
“I’ve realized it’s okay to have different opinions,” McCann said. “Just being open to different ideas and accepting that not everyone is the same – that’s the best part of life, that not everyone is the same.”
 
Sydney Jackson ’18 agreed, adding that Diversity in the DMV has challenged her to find unexpected commonalities with people she meets.
 
“It makes me step outside of my comfort zone and realize not everyone has the same opinions as me, and be comfortable with that,” she said.
 
McCann and Jackson said they’ve kept in touch with friends they’ve made at Diversity in the DMV – for McCann, reconnecting on the soccer field, and for Jackson, reuniting at national gatherings like the Student Diversity Leadership Conference.
 
“Practitioners need to continue to be in these dialogues,” Glasgow said. “We’re never finished learning about the world and our roles within it.”
 
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St. Andrew’s Episcopal School is a private, coeducational college preparatory day school for students in preschool (Age 2) through grade 12, located in Potomac, Maryland.