Doing the work Doing the work

Holt’s efforts toward diversity, equity, and inclusion

groups and people making it happen and what they stand for.

As explained on the Holt Public website, HEAT’s goal is, “creating equitable pathways for all students; [to] disrupt and dismantle existing systems that are barriers to our potential; [and] being agents of change who will seek, recognize, and seize opportunities to honor voices, surface issues, and promote equity.”

The HEAT team is a group of parents, students, and staff working teacher Teryn Henderson explained how being a critical friend works.

“If someone says something or does something that could potentially be harmful, and I don’t want them out harming people because they are my friend, I would act as a critical friend and, you know, kind of push back or call for some difficult conversations,” Henderson said.

She went on to explain how this process of keeping each other in check reminds her that they are all together to push each other to be the difference they want to see in the school.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was also created to work alongside HEAT and assist in making this change a reality.

Matt Morales, the Executive Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, working with Henderson as the DEI coach, is a leader in these programs.

Superintendent David Hornak explained that Holt was one of the first mid-Michigan schools to create Morales’ position and how monumental that was for the district.

“With a tremendous amount of work to do moving forward, creating an Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion demonstrates our commitment to creating an environment in which every member of our community is seen, heard, valued and welcomed,” Hornak said.

She hoped that in sharing her story, she would show how real these issues are for Holt students.

Sophomore Sanariya Lane, another student that worked on professional development, explained why bringing up these experiences is essential.

“I think the students bring real situations and problems that are happening, they bring them to the table, and they lay them out and then we figure out what we can do to fix it,” Lane said.

Lane noted how speaking in front of staff felt different than other programs in the school.

“I feel like the students, we had a voice, like, it wasn’t just teachers and students. I feel like it was more based on the students, and we really appreciated that,” Lane said.

They do this, in part, by acting as “critical friends” to each other. DEI coach and district ESL in it together.

“Everybody is always on this learning journey and learning and trying to do better for our students, and my HEAT people keep me honest with that,” Henderson said. The Office of

To create that environment, there are multiple lenses the DEI office and HEAT look through, including the students perspective.

Morales, explained that the various student-led walkouts from the 2021-2022 school year got his attention. These showed that more student voice is needed for the equity programs to be as effective as possible.

“We want to value our students because, in many ways, they’re the professionals of understanding this space that they live in and that they’re growing in,” Morales said.

In light of incorporating more student voice, Morales explained that once each semester, they aim to have a student-led professional development meeting with teachers and administration.

The first student-led professional development was in early November of 2022 and called attention to some hard hitting topics, including what it felt like to be discriminated against and scared as a student.

Junior Crystine Guo, a student leading the professional development, shared her story with staff.

“I talked about being scared to go out of the house because I was Asian and I was afraid of being attacked, when COVID-19 was first a thing,” Guo said.

Lane went on to say that she has already seen change that she is happy with.

“It just doesn’t happen overnight. But I definitely think, so far, change has been made not just from that, but from all the change we had with you know, having [security guards of color] and Diversity Club, all that has made change to the school in general,” Lane said.

Guo shared her optimism for the impact of the student-led meeting and the work being done by equity programs across the board.

“I see that as the staff are going to change. And I think that’s important. Like we’re moving forward,” Guo said.

To learn more about how to get involved with HEAT, check out the Holt Public website.