This past fall, 5 Upper School Students (including myself) ventured to Nashville Tennessee with 8 faculty members. The students attended the Student Diversity Leadership Conference, and the teachers attended The People of Color Conference. This year was the 25th annual conference and its theme was Harmony, Discord, and the Notes Between. I heard from wonderful speakers such as journalist Lisa Ling; Christian Piccoilini, who used to be a part of a white supremacy group; and Mark Lamont Hill, who was recently in the news for his controversial speech. The conference was very larger this year: about 6,000 students from independent schools all across the nation. The students were split up into Family Groups which they spent most of their time with. They did of activities exploring the different parts of our identities and partaking in thoughtful discussions. In addition to Family Groups, we were split into our infinity groups based off our ethnicity. This was another fun time to connect with people your age and celebrate your culture.
The conference provided both a great opportunity for learning and the space to build new friendships with cool, diverse  students of different  backgrounds. My Family Group, Jay Rapp, always rocked out to music on the way to lunch and even cheered on my friends as they sang, danced and spoke poetry for the talent show.
Look out to see what the 5 of us are bringing back to the Newman community. I would 100% recommend attending a SDLC if given the opportunity!