Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

by Michael Buensuceso, Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

The end of the 2020 school year marked the conclusion of our first strategic plan for Cultural Competency. As we move forward, we do so reflective of the accomplishments to date, sensitive to the ever-evolving world, and eager to build on the foundation that has been firmly set. Since its creation in 2015, we have intentionally adhered to the ideals outlined in our Statement of Community:

BERWICK ACADEMY affirms its commitment to creating an inclusive and welcoming community that celebrates the unique qualities of every individual while encouraging active engagement in a diverse world. We strive to support and attract students, faculty, staff, and administrators whose varied backgrounds, including race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, family composition, physical difference, and socioeconomic status, strengthen our community. Through our curriculum, extracurricular activities, and community-building efforts, we prepare students to become leaders who challenge preconceptions, value difference, and catalyze divergent ideas to realize Berwick’s mission of “promoting virtue and useful knowledge.”

Between 2015 and 2020, we have established committees at the board level, in each of the divisions, with alumni, and within the Berwick Parent Community. Their foci include supporting cultural competency efforts at the policy level, within curricular and co-curricular activities, and amongst the parent and alumni community. Annually, the school provides for faculty and staff internal professional development opportunities, focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the year, and students, faculty, and staff attend local and national conferences. We have established partnerships with national agencies that specialize in supporting prospective faculty and staff of color to help build hiring candidate pools that are racially and culturally diverse. An intentional effort in the admission office has allowed us to increase our percentage of students of color from 10% to 16% of our total population. Finally, more than 40% of our students receive some form of financial aid – the Hilltop has never been this racially and socioeconomically diverse.

Yet, there is a prevailing view that the term “cultural competency” does not fully describe the efforts to date and is incomplete without recognition of the systemic inequality and social injustice that exists and its impact on underrepresented and marginalized communities – especially coming off a year when the names George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Jacob Blake were added to the ever-growing list of Black Americans who lost their lives to law enforcement. We actively wonder if this is the watershed moment that briefly emerged during the aftermath of our nation becoming all too familiar with the stories of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, and Eric Garner, and how we need to continue to prepare our young people with intention.

As we look to the future, we are reframing this work under the umbrella Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI). These

Diversity Club on steps of Burleigh-Davidson House

words more intentionally communicate our commitment to building a diverse school community that ensures active and full participation, values fairness and equality, and addresses the chronic marginalization experienced by underrepresented groups both on and off campus. We are confident in the firm foundation we’ve built in the past six years and our ability to engage each other in challenging dialogue and honest conversation on systemic inequality.

Supported by faculty and staff who spent a good portion of their summer in virtual forums and participating in professional development on anti-bias education, anti-racism, and social justice, the Hilltop is finding creative ways to engage in this work. It is a testament to the Berwick community’s willingness to lean into hard conversations and an overall commitment to the greater good. Our Upper School Diversity Club, under the leadership of Julia Wagner ‘22, Siddhi Poraiyan ‘23, and Amaya Moore ‘24, meets biweekly with its advisor, Upper School History Faculty, Dean of Community, and Ninth Grade Dean Lucy Pollard, to raise awareness of the racism experienced by the African American community nationwide. This fall, the 30-member group installed a public art project throughout campus, which highlighted examples of anti-Black racism. Teachers reported that this project created opportunities for dialogue on these topics with students in all three divisions.

Middle School Teacher and Fifth and Sixth Grade Dean Cassie Warnick, along with the MS Cultural Competency Committee, worked with student leaders to create Bulldogs for Justice, a Middle School faculty and student group committed to building equity on the Hilltop. Sixty students have attended each of the first two meetings to discuss identity and inclusion. The group endeavors to create opportunities for more focused exploration of different cultural identities and to share what they learn with peers outside their group.

Lower School Art Teacher Naomi Ellsworth continues to guide the efforts of integrating anti-bias and multicultural education into the day-to-day curriculum. In helping students develop identity, second and third grade teachers Kelly Martin and Kelsey Guziak worked with Harper Watters ’10, a former student who started at Berwick in the first grade and remained through ninth grade. Harper left to join the Houston Ballet School and is now a soloist for the Houston Ballet. In their Zoom conversation, they discussed stereotypes and the importance of being comfortable with who we are, accepting others who are different or may not fit in, and ways to be our very best selves. To read an interview with Harper Watters, please see page 44.

Parents Meera Mahadevan, Chair of the BPC Cares group, and Robert Sapiro Mitten organized a Zoom event featuring Anne Romney, Portsmouth resident, consultant, and corporate trainer of Northeastern University. Forty-eight parents representing all three divisions attended the two-hour interactive session on anti-racism and social justice. Kristina Powell, Director of The Berwick Fund, organized the second Alumni for Social Justice Meeting. Fifteen alumni heard from Lucy Pollard on the curricular and co-curricular activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Upper School and from Jim Hamilton and me on the next chapter of work to be included in the upcoming strategic plan. We are nearing the plan’s completion and look forward to sharing the updated goals for curriculum and pedagogy, initiatives and partnerships outside the classroom, and metrics for student, faculty, and trustee of color recruitment and retention.

It is not our intention to completely abandon the term “cultural competency,” but to use it within the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) framework. These terms more accurately reflect the work we have been doing and, more succinctly, describe the direction Berwick needs to pursue as we continue to prepare graduates to affect change toward a more just society.