We are pleased to share with you a progress report on our commitment to becoming a more anti-racist, culturally aware, school community. This work does not happen overnight. We will continue to keep you updated on our progress as new milestones are reached. We’d like to thank the Board of Trustees for their support, both spiritually and financially, to do this important work. Our faculty and staff continue to work hard to ensure our students have the resources and support they need. A special thank you is in order to our students for sharing their stories through their lived experiences which is critical to becoming a better school.
.
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Reaffirmed as Presidential & Institutional Priorities
In response to the urgency and importance of dignity and justice for all people, and our commitment to human excellence in living out our Jesuit ideals, BC High’s Board of Trustees and President Grace Cotter Regan P'12 approved the following goal as a Faith and Justice Presidential Priority for Fiscal Year 2022:
To respond to the recommendations from the FY’21 Latham and Watkins Board Report. To execute year-two of Courageous Conversations with oversight of the school Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plan as BC High continues to make the necessary changes to the culture and structures of the institution to make it a more just and welcome place for all people and build an anti-racism culture, in keeping with its Jesuit mission.
Board of Trustees Update on DEI
In June 2020, the Board of Trustees engaged Latham & Watkins, LLP to conduct a comprehensive, independent review of the issues raised through the Instagram account @blackatbchigh and, more broadly, review the climate at BC High around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. With the review now complete, on behalf of the Board, we are pleased to share Latham's report with you (redacted to protect confidential information). The executive summary can be found here. The findings are summarized in four main areas of focus which we have been included in our Strategic Plan:
- Discipline
- Hiring Faculty of Color and Recruiting Students of Color
- The Role of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at BC High
- Professional Development and Classroom Training
The Board is to be commended for their leadership and guidance throughout the entire year-long review. We are also deeply grateful to those members of our community who courageously shared their lived experiences, stories, insights, and aspirations with the Latham team. With what we have learned, we will continue our work on being a more inclusive and just community.
Director, DEI Reporting Structure, & Center team
To better reflect the School’s institutional commitment, the reporting structure of the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was elevated as of July 1, 2020. This role now reports directly to the President and Principal. Further, beginning this year, the Center team now consists of three additional members who are responsible for various aspects of furthering the mission of the Center. Katie McKiernan focuses her work on curriculum development. Lizzy Corsetti is responsible for overseeing personal and professional development. And, Terrell Diggs focuses on student inclusivity and serves as a resource for all students, but particularly students of color.
As a team, they have selected a theme to center their work. The theme is Empowering Ourselves -- to be an anti-racist community, to uplift the voice of our students, to support the student experience, and to find power in our personal journeys of DEI -- being comfortable in our biases and acting against them and creating that safe space so we all bring our authentic selves to this community.
Center for DEI gets a new space!
The newly created space has quickly become a bustling gathering area for students to comfortably connect with their peers, helping each other with academics, having a courageous conversation, or just hanging out during a free period. Our young men are encouraged to share ideas as a diverse voice for the school and collaborate ways to make change.
Human Diversity is a gift that BC High strives to promote, affirm, and celebrate. As a Jesuit, Catholic school, we commit to justice, equity, and inclusion because they are essential to meaningful learning, personal growth, and loving relationships. -DEI Mission Statement
All School Read
This year marks our ninth annual all-school summer read. As part of the Corcoran Living Library Lecture Series, Jason Reynold’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020) was chosen as its official selection for the 2021-2022 academic year. The books is described as “gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative,” Reynolds “shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.”
Mr. Reynold's will join the BC High community in person for a lively and dynamic discussion. The event will be available via livestream to the BC High community on March 25, 2022
Engaging Students
One of the exciting new initiatives that the DEI team has embarked on is S.O.A.R.(Students Organized Against Racism) is a new phase of our school’s partnership with Courageous Conversations. Student leaders receive training in the Courageous Conversation protocol and are preparing to be facilitators for student discussion groups. The students in S.O.A.R. will be of service to lead conversations with their peers around race and other sensitive topics while also learning more about DEI initiatives within the community.
“My experience at SOAR taught me how to use the quadrants in order to change someone’s perspective on an idea without causing any harm or disruption. Essentially being civil while having those ‘tougher’ conversations.” -Ishmael Hazelwood '22
"Being a newer program, SOAR has started to lay the foundations of equipping its members and the community at large with tools to engage in challenging conversations." -Mark Metri '22
As a senior, it fills me with hope for the future of the school knowing that a program like SOAR will keep us on the right track and push us to become a better school through constructive conversation. -John Forry '22
Affinity Groups
Under the direction of Terrell Diggs, the Diversity Cabinet, which includes representation from all the affinity groups meets regularly to discuss a variety of topics. Notably this year, they have hosted an open forum around slurs (in literature) and outside of the classroom (athletics, online, etc.) They are currently working on an open forum about single sex education.
For more detailed information on all of the affinity groups, visit our website www.bchigh.edu/diversity-equity-inclusion. A few highlights so far this year are listed below:
Black Latino Student Union (BLSU) -- This group of students have led a student open forum on race and presented to the Human Excellence sub-committee of the Board of Trustees and to the full board itself on their experience as students of color at BC High. Additionally, they developed and delivered an outstanding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Service for our community:
Asian Pacific Islanders Collective (AAPIC) meet weekly and have had some significant conversations this year around hate crimes. They have welcomed AAPI speakers including trustees Brian Lee '03 and Fritz Freidman '68. They have engaged the school community with their dumpling tastings and hosted a movie viewing with support of Asian leads- Marvel’s Shang Chi
Hispanic Latino Association (HLA) was excited to celebrate the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) holiday with the school community by sharing information, food, and culture.
“Student support has been a great outlet for our boys in various ways. The one I am most happy about is their ability to come into my office and share their truth. Student support out of the Center for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion has provided another resource for our boys to talk, relate, and find comfort." -Terrell Diggs
Supporting First-Generation Students
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Guidance department offered a program for members of the Class of 2023 who identify as first-generation or underrepresented students in higher education. The program featured Kenny Delino ’16, Assistant Director for Alumni Relations, and Sam Jordan ’16, Analyst at Deloitte, sharing their own experiences in the college recruitment process and provided resources for current students and their families. Collaboratively, they have developed a model for an annual series of events to raise awareness and support student applications.
Personal & Professional Development
As we look to engage our faculty and staff in creating a more equitable environment, Lizzy Corsetti, has done great work to create personal and professional development opportunities for the community. As it relates directly to the Strategic Plan, Lizzy and Sue Glover, Manager of People and Culture, have attended specific human resources training on hiring practices and creating a structure of hiring and retaining faculty/staff of color.
Equity Leadership Team
A main focus for the year has been the development of the Equity Leadership Team (ELT). This group of nearly 30 faculty and staff met over the summer to begin their work and took part in extensive training with the Courageous Conversations protocols. They moderate small professional learning groups on relevant topics throughout the year and work to keep DEI a focus in and out of the classroom.
"...BC High serves as a socially conscious institution in the Boston community where ALL who come in the door learn to be men and women for others. I see BC High as being that one institution that shines a message of unity and love in the Community!" -Marc Stallworth, IT Department, ELT member
Our Work as a Community
- Faculty Affinity Groups (POC, LGBTQ+, and Black) have gathered to support each other and discuss ways BC High can be more inclusive to specific groups
- People of Color Conference was attended virtually by 10 faculty and staff members
- AISNE Diversity Conference was also attended virtually by 14 faculty and staff members. AISNE attendees came together to share their favorite workshops and takeaways from the conference
- Individual meetings with administrators who completed their Intercultural Development Inventory assessment tool. A new cohort of staff will begin their their process to think deeper about cultural differences and their personal journey towards adaptation.
Led by Katie McKiernan, faculty and staff have had the opportunity it engage in a number of conferences and events designed to help them grow personally and professionally. Katie continues to provide easily accessible resources to our students, faculty/staff, and families that may help on a variety of topics.
• Joan Melville Institute - The Melville Institute is a prestigious annual K-12 curriculum development intensive for BC High faculty, and is also open to other select faculty from area Catholic schools. The 2021 Institute was devoted to training the ELT team and developing a year-long curriculum for the professional learning groups
• National Anti-Racism Teach-In - For the third year in a row, members of the BC High community participated in the National Anti-Racism Teach-In which is a national anti-racist conference and global movement designed to identify, analyze, and challenge racism.
- NAIS People of Color Conference
- AISNE Anti-Racism Conference
- AISNE Heads and DEI Cohorts
- Ongoing DEI Book Discussion Groups for Faculty & Staff with frequently updated resources widely available
Community-wide Racial Equity Systemic Transformation – Courageous Conversation ™
BC High has continued in year-two of an ambitious multi-year partnership to foster continuous and sustainable culture change. Facilitated by Pacific Education Group, Courageous Conversation™ is the award-winning protocol for effectively engaging, sustaining, and deepening interracial dialogue. This effort requires a serious and substantive investment in time and resources, reflective of BC High’s commitment to racial equity and justice.
The program continues to engage all BC High constituencies, providing a framework to “transform beliefs, behaviors, and results so people of all races can achieve at their highest levels and live their most empowered and powerful lives.” Launching in September, 2020, the initial phase of this work has engaged School leaders in a series of 10 in-depth workshops to learn and prepare to teach and sustain the Courageous Conversation ™ protocol within the community. During the Spring semester, the program expanded to include the Board of Trustees and all faculty and staff. This year students, families and alumni, have engaged in this important work.
Our Work in the Classroom
We have also made some significant shifts in terms of our anti-racist work in the educational program, inside and outside the classroom. As with any culture shift, it is important that it is driven from the inside out and owned by all members of the community, particularly our students.
In the classroom, our faculty have committed to engaging with students about the turbulent times in which we live, acknowledging that our current context is unsettling for all, but particularly for our young men as they attempt to make sense of their world. These are not always easy conversations, but as a Jesuit school they are necessary and are always centered on human dignity and respect.
In summer 2020, with oversight from our academic leadership team, the school funded significant grants for teachers in every department to write curriculum revision proposals, toward the aim of diversifying our classroom instruction and updating understandings of cultural competence. Beginning this academic year, specific curriculum changes in Social Studies, English, and Religious Education, as an example, have built further on previous excellent work committed to ensuring that our curriculum and pedagogy is representative and inclusive.
As an example of the work being done in classrooms, French teacher, Shannon Atkeson, is engaging her class in an exciting project.
I chose four Black francophone famous people and had a station during the long block with their biography and an activity relating to them. I chose Louisy Joseph, a Martiniquaise singer, Nicolas Batum, a French basketball player for the Clippers, Léopold Senghor, a politician and poet, and Richardson Viano, the first Haitian skier in the Olympics. They had an activity for each person and now, I have asked them all to choose a Black francophone person to present. For the rest of the month and some of March, we will begin class with 2 short presentations on their chosen people. -Shannon Atkeson, French