The Elisabeth Morrow School’s initiatives around community life, equity, and belonging (CLEB) focus on designing equity and access for the entire community; enriching student experiences that help them to understand, value, and benefit from the diversity of our community and beyond; navigating diversity, equity, and belonging conversations and integrating anti-bias goals in our faculty-staff professional development.
Our anti-bias goals include demonstrating self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities; expressing comfort and joy with human diversity; recognizing unfairness, having language to describe unfairness, and understanding that unfairness hurts; and demonstrating empowerment and the skills to act, with other or alone, against prejudice and/or discrimination.
In order to offer more support to the Parent Association (PA) and move forward initiatives around community life, equity, and belonging, Cheyenne Pronga Cruz took on the role of director of community life, equity, and belonging in July 2023.
Ms. Pronga Cruz works across divisions to coordinate, establish, and solidify school-wide processes, procedures, and resources to support neurodiversity within our school community, as well as supporting wide-scale institutional and strategic efforts like hiring, retention, communications, and operations.
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
SHARING CULTURES
Morrow House and Little School students have the opportunity to share their cultures with their peers during assemblies. This helps grow their sense of self, self-confidence, and public speaking skills.
STUDENT GROWTH
Restorative Practices have become central to supporting student growth and community healing in dealing with hurtful choices and behaviors.
IMPORTANT DISCUSSIONS
A delegation of seventh-grade students attended the Middle School Equity & Inclusion Summit at the Gill St. Bernard’s School, where they engaged with their peers from areas schools and discussed critical topics in technology, artificial intelligence, equity, and inclusion.
Community Events
NEW EVENT: CULTURE FAIR
In March 2023, the PA DEI chairs in collaboration with the director of CLEB hosted our first Cultural Fair. Gathering as a community, students and their families shared traditional dances, music, crafts, and games.
UPCOMING EVENT: INTERNATIONAL FOOD FESTIVAL
In February 2024, our International Food Festival, a biennial event where our community gathers to share, celebrate, and appreciate the cultural diversity of EMS in a fun and welcoming setting, will take place. Amazing ethnic and regional foods from across the world are brought together by our families. This year, a breakout space will be added where cultural crafts and games will also be shared. This event is an exemplar of how the EMS community comes together to honor and celebrate our rich diversity.
STRONG COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
In the fall of 2023, the PA hosted welcome breakfasts, family meetups, the amazing Fall Festival, our annual Book Fair & Storytelling Festival, and successfully brought back the much-missed Faculty & Staff Tea. In the 2022-2023 school year, the PA had more than 200 volunteers to facilitate multiple entry points for our families and students to develop a sense of belonging within our community. The opportunities span from cocoa parties, end-of-year celebrations, class meetups, Book Club, speakers, identity-based affinity meetings, and more.
Tapping into Togetherness
- Involvement in our PA identity-based affinity groups by community members has grown.
- The number of students involved in our Morrow House student identity-based affinity groups, including the Glow Club, Brothers on the Rise, and a Girls of Color group, has grown.
- EMS representation at the Widening the Lens Conference, which helps schools “widen the lens” on how they view and plan to grow their school, specifically around their diversity and inclusion goals, has increased with representation from our head of school, director of CLEB, Little School CLEB coordinator, Director of Admissions, students, faculty, and parents.
More Highlights
A Self Portrait Project. Students in our 3s/4s classes build a community by first looking into the mirror and exploring themselves and then providing a window into their world for their peers. As they build self-portraits and share the background of their names, they learn about the similarities and differences that make them each unique and their classroom community special.
Little School Assembly. During these weekly division-wide meetings, students, as well as faculty, share their heritages and give a glimpse of their culture to their peers. Holidays and cultural celebrations are embraced within the community.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR VISION AND GOALS FOR THE FUTURE OF EMS
Important 2023–2024 State of the School topics include updates from Chilton House, Little School, and Morrow House, as well as Advancement, Auxiliary Programs, Communications and Marketing, Enrollment, Facilities and Operations, and Finances.
