Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives

Hopkins School has engaged in the following Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. These initiatives are aimed to bring about meaningful change to our institution and culture. We understand that these initiatives are just the first steps toward building and sustaining an anti-racist school community at Hopkins. We recognize this journey is ongoing and will continue for as long as it takes to bring parity to the experience of each and every Hopkins community member. As of this printing of Views from the Hill, these are the School’s initiatives and their current status:

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INITIATIVES

We will re-examine our curriculum to incorporate a social justice lens, de-center Anglo-European voices, and elevate all voices. This will also include a race and representation audit in our English and History departments. Additionally, we will create a new interdisciplinary course on social justice.

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We will continue to invest in financial aid so we can enhance the socio-economic diversity on our campus. We commit to awarding a minimum of $5 million in aid in the 2020–2021 school year, and increase that aid each year moving forward.

STATUS

The English department is conducting a two-phased audit. English faculty are reviewing every course and text taught through the department in order to comprehensively understand authorial representation in our curriculum. An outside facilitator is leading the English department in three sessions of professional development centered on culturally relevant pedagogy. In the second phase, the English department will evaluate representation of the texts’ protagonists, the stories our authors tell, and differences/commonalities in the ways we teach our texts. The information collected will guide text choices and proposals for new courses for subsequent academic years. In the History department, faculty members are examining the Atlantic Communities curriculum and our electives, as well as conducting a representation audit of the Middle School offerings. The data collected will inform changes to the curriculum across grade levels. An interdisciplinary Social Justice course will be added to the curriculum for the 2021–22 school year. The Calarco Library engaged in a DEI audit of their fiction collection, and has made their findings available in an online report, which can be reviewed at hopkins.edu/calarcodei

In January 2021, the Board of Trustees approved a budget for the 2021-2022 school year, which includes $5.3 million designated for financial aid.

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We will establish a Fund for Social Justice, which will provide annual grants to projects in four broad categories: student research, activism and internships, campus-wide events and speakers, and long-term programs with community partners. The Fund for Social Justice is helping to expand Hopkins’ programming. Anti-racism, equity, and social justice work are critical to understanding ourselves and the world in which we live. The fund is supporting a broad range of efforts in our community this year, including curriculum and pedagogy development, affinity groups, social justice programs, assembly speakers, and travel to and participation in conferences and workshops. Donasia Gray ’18 joined the Office of Equity and Community (OEC) team as a Fellow for a 6-week period to learn, observe, organize, and support the work of the OEC. She was compensated through the Yale Educational Studies Program, and was invited to stay on through the remainder of the year, with compensation from the Fund for Social Justice. If you’re interested in learning more about this Fellowship, please contact Becky Harper, bharper@hopkins.edu. To donate directly to the Fund for Social Justice in support of this work, please visit hopkins.edu/giving.

INITIATIVES

4We will implement the recommendations outlined in a comprehensive report produced this year to improve the recruitment and retention of faculty of color. Key objectives of the report include Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training for hiring committees, an equity audit, and utilizing new recruitment networks.

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We will provide training and professional development to all employees (administrators, faculty, staff, and coaches) on cultural competency and culturally responsive teaching practices. We will also evolve our disciplinary process to include restorative justice practices.

STATUS

We have begun an equity audit, which includes an examination of both our hiring processes and our engagement with candidates of color. We have engaged consultant Martha Haakmat, who has led training on bias and cultural competency for employees involved in faculty and staff recruitment, as well as advised on best practices in creating job descriptions, application review, candidate visits and follow up.

Professional development for faculty during school-opening meetings was led by local educators of color and focused on anti-racist teaching practices and pedagogy. This collaboration is continuing throughout the school year. All faculty and staff read and were asked to actively reflect on Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum before the start of the school year, facilitated by the Hopkins Coalition of Anti-Racist Educators (CARE). The Teachers’ Enrichment Cohort Professional Development Program has been expanded to include more faculty and has focused on culturally responsive teaching pedagogy for the 2020-21 school year. The program, which includes two different cohorts of teachers across grades and disciplines, developed a foundation of cultural competency in the Fall of 2020 and is transitioning to one-on-one coaching with a trained facilitator this Spring of 2021. The group continues to meet and discuss culturally responsive teaching to better understand how culture shows up in the classroom with students, in lesson planning, etc. if unaware of cultural archetypes and biases. More professional development programming is being developed for the 2021–22 school year, and the OEC is working to incorporate DEI questions into the annual Career Review process. The OEC is also working with the Athletic Department to integrate DEI into the athletics program.

INITIATIVES

6We will encourage and support our Student Diversity Board, along with our affinity groups on campus (Black Latinx Student Union, Asian American Student Association, Students United for Racial Equity, Sexuality and Gender Advocates, and the Multi-ethnic Student Association) to create more spaces for association, affirmation, and connection. We will also support our Employees of Color Affinity Group, as well as our faculty and staff Coalition for Anti-Racist Educators.

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We will more publicly and explicitly recognize the history surrounding the founding of the School, including the role slavery played in that history. We will examine this history and include our findings at hopkins.edu.

STATUS

Student interest in joining the Student Diversity Board (DivBo) has increased, and the group has tripled in size. Student leaders from DivBo helped facilitate discussions with student athletes on the topics of homophobia and racism in the sport of soccer. DivBo has begun multiple subcommittees to address various issues and topics on campus, and is collaborating with various groups on campus to help raise awareness and support our community. DivBo, SURE, and BLSU collaborated to host a rich and informative weekly program for Black History Month. The Asian American Student Association hosted a three-day Virtual Campus Summit around the theme of colorism and understanding anti-blackness within the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. The keynote speaker was Diana Khoi Nguyen. The School is supporting faculty and student participation in the National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference. Eight people attended the 2020 POC Conference virtually, and participated in workshops and affinity spaces, and attended keynotes and master classes. The Hopkins attendees also engaged in check-ins throughout the week and debriefed our experiences and steps forward. The Employees of Color (EoC) group gathered post-election to check-in and support each other. The group meets at least once a month, to be in community with each other. The Hopkins Coalition of Anti-Racist Educators (CARE) has organized meetings with faculty to discuss and support each other in implementing anti-racist pedagogy. CARE has grown in size since it was established in spring 2020. For the remainder of the year, the group will work on building community, training, and gathering anti-racist resources to ultimately continue help guide our community. They are in a period of growth.

Our work in researching and recognizing our own institution’s connection to slavery is currently underway. Real progress will require both personal and institutional honesty and humility, as change will only come when we confront our own foundational truth. While we cannot erase this history, we can continually confront it and learn from it. Our approach in telling Hopkins’ history emphasized the importance of multiple perspectives. We will be engaging with and learning from a diverse group of historians (i.e. Native and African American voices) in order to share the history in a multi-faceted way that honors and elevates historically marginalized voices. The team of historians will examine the general history of what was going on at the time of the School’s founding, and the context of who Edward Hopkins and John Davenport were. At this moment, our preliminary research tells us this: Our school was founded amidst the beginnings of a great paradox in American history—one in which liberty and slavery were intertwined. Slavery in Connecticut was practiced until 1848. Hopkins School’s relationship with slavery can be traced back to its benefactor, Edward Hopkins. Upon his death in 1657, his estate listed an enslaved person as property. At this point of research, it is unclear if this enslaved person was of Pequot or African descent. Reverend John Davenport, who was also instrumental in the founding Hopkins School, is also believed to have been a slaveholder.

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We will work with the Hopkins Black Alumni Network (HBAN) to create more spaces for alumni to connect, promote mission-focused programs for the School, and deepen the mentor relationships with our current students.

We will work with our Director of Community Engagement to strengthen Hopkins’ partnerships and relationships with the City of New Haven through targeted educational enrichment programs and community outreach.

10We will expand Pathfinder, our after-school and summer outreach and educational enrichment program focused in New Haven and Bridgeport, so we can broaden our impact on the children in the greater New Haven area. The four-year, tuition-free program currently serves 120 students. We will devise a plan to fund a minimum of 200 students within five years.

11Through our Office of Diversity and Equity, we will design and launch educational and community-based workshops for current Hopkins parents, 12 which will focus on race, identity, and diversity. NEW INITIATIVE: We will examine the particular mental health needs of our students of color and create tangible structures to support them. The Hopkins Black Alumni Network will expand their networking capacity by using the online platform, Hopkins Net@Work. The group will host online gatherings to bring the HBAN community and current students together, including a virtual event at Reunion 2021. If you identify as African/American and/or Black and would like to be involved in HBAN, please contact Katey Varanelli at kvaranelli@hopkins.edu. In addition to HBAN, the Development Office has also established two new affinity groups in which alums can engage: LGBTQ+ and Alums of Color. If you would like to be involved, please reach out to Katey Varanelli at kvaranelli@hopkins.edu or Becky Harper at bharper@hopkins.edu.

In progress.

We have hired Errol Saunders, a longtime Hopkins History teacher and New Haven resident, as Executive Director of Pathfinder. Under his leadership, the Pathfinder program will focus on four areas aligned with our expansion efforts: Organizational Structure, Programming, Donor Relations, and New Haven Partnerships. The Pathfinder staff has begun reviewing and revamping the program with an eye for increasing instructional quality for Pathfinder students, enhancing the experiences of Summer Teaching Fellows and schoolyear volunteers, and supporting program faculty, staff, and volunteers in understanding and enacting the program’s equity-focused mission. Additionally, the program is reevaluating how it recruits new students, tells the stories of its alumni successes, and partners with other organizations around the city in order to be a greater force for educational equity in our communities.

The School hosted a series of four Parent CommUnity Conversations on Diversity, Race, and Inclusion at Hopkins this year. The sessions were led by Lynn Sullivan, Principal of Diversity Benchmark Consulting. Looking ahead, we plan to develop a DEI Parent Council within the Hopkins Parent Association, as well as a DEI-focused orientation program for new parents, to set the tone and expectations for the community each year.

In progress.

As stated in the introduction, the status of these initiatives were current as of the printing of this issue. For updated statuses of these initiatives and any additional information, please visit hopkins.edu/dei