Students, faculty travel to diversity conferences
by Roderick White, diversity & community life director
High School students and faculty traveled to California last week for the Student Diversity Leadership Conference and People of Color Conference.
High School students and faculty traveled to California last week for the Student Diversity Leadership Conference and People of Color Conference.
Six students recently attended the Student Diversity Leadership Conference, hosted by the National Association of Independent Schools and held in Anaheim, Calif. The theme for the three-day conference was "Making our Voices Matter: Leading the Charge to Common Ground." The conference offered Ariel Hong ’20, Elijah Hong ’18, Clayton Jelsma ’19, Amara Payne ’19, Curtis Patey ’18, and Katelyn Starks ’19 the opportunity to meet, discuss, support and work with 1,600 other independent school students from around the country on how to lead and facilitate conversations and initiatives in the areas of diversity, inclusion and cultural competency. The students were accompanied by several faculty members, who concurrently attended the NAIS People of Color Conference.
Here is what the students had to say about their experience:
“SDLC gave me the courage and support I needed to find my voice to actively speak out on issues that affect me and my peers. I was surrounded by people who had very similar experiences but also very different ones and brought up perspectives I hadn’t even noticed,” said Ariel Hong.
“Over the last year, I began to doubt that a truly safe space void of the many -isms and -phobias that riddle our world could actually exist. But coming to SDLC this year gave me hope that such a community can indeed exist and that creating such an environment at USN is absolutely possible, despite widespread doubts,” said Elijah Hong.
“SDLC provides a safe haven for everyone to feel free to express themselves. It gave me a vision for what I want to see a change in both our school environment and surrounding communities,” said Clayton Jelsma.
"For me, SDLC created a community that allowed me to explore my role in the fight for equity. From this conference, I saw that through cooperation with peers, I would be able to create change within the USN community as well as the surrounding Nashville community," said Curtis Patey.
“SDLC provided a loving, respectful and accepting environment to learn from others and share my perspective on important topics that aren't often discussed. I learned that there is hope for change and of the many effective strategies that can be used to work towards that goal,” said Katelyn Starks.
"For me, SDLC created a community that allowed me to explore my role in the fight for equity. From this conference, I saw that through cooperation with peers, I would be able to create change within the USN community as well as the surrounding Nashville community," said Curtis Patey.
“SDLC provided a loving, respectful and accepting environment to learn from others and share my perspective on important topics that aren't often discussed. I learned that there is hope for change and of the many effective strategies that can be used to work towards that goal,” said Katelyn Starks.
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2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.