Skip to main content

The power of the student voice

Yesterday, the Board of Trustees gathered for its annual retreat. It was a powerful day focused upon the purposes and goals of our new cultural competency efforts. As you might imagine, it was a topic that afforded us to think deeply about Berwick’s culture while also considering important strategic initiatives for the future. There were many powerful moments throughout the day, including presentations from Berwick faculty and our Director of Cultural Competency, Michael Buensuceso.

With all of that said, I found the most impactful part of the day to be listening to three of our Upper School students who spoke to their experiences of traveling to the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) this past year. All of us, in the audience, were struck by their openness, honesty, and courage in sharing their experiences talking about hard issues around identity as well as their experience on our campus. In some cases, this came from the perspective of what it can be like to be a student of color at Berwick Academy. As Head of School, it is always so exciting to see how our trustees respond to student voices. The questions and overall tenor of engagement revealed such a level of empathy and a commitment to our mission. It was certainly a proud moment for me on all sides.

I could not help but reflect upon a few things. First of all, it would have been impossible for me to conceive of presenting on such a topic to a Board of Trustees as a high school student. As friendly and supportive as our Board may be, it is an intimidating experience to speak in front of such a gathering. My second thought was how proud I was of the way our students must have represented our school at a national summit of student leaders talking about race and identity. Their sense of balance and perspective seemed to reflect the very values we espouse as an institution.


I know that we are not perfect as a school, but I left the experience yesterday reminded that we have exceptional faculty and trustees – but especially students. I know that by continuing to listen to them, our school will be able to evolve into the strongest possible community it can be.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Piercing the Bubble

This week we were so fortunate to have former NH Senator Kelly Ayotte address grades 7 – 11 in our theater about Civil Discourse in a time of Political Polarization. Senator Ayotte spoke to the need to take the high road in tough conversations and put an incredible primacy on building relationships with people who hold different opinions. She was able to speak to some of her own successes in working across the aisle to develop legislation to address the opioid crisis in New Hampshire as one powerful example of how this can be possible. Additionally, Senator Ayotte offered a strong reminder to our students of the need for more women in positions of leadership within our government, citing that she had only been the 53rd woman to serve in the US senate during her tenure. With a down-to-earth style and but an appropriately impassioned call to action, she challenged our students to become the leaders that they could be. Her call to action and example of service were powerful reminder...

The wonders of nature at Berwick

I started my day in the Admin meeting on Thursday hearing about the newest iteration of Earth Day this year. Thanks to senior Quinn Santos and his Innovation Pursuit, we learned about the ways in which Earth Day will be a bit more hands on and active than it has in the past. Quinn has been a passionate environmentalist on campus and this year his IP project has focused on building out our Earth Day programming. As Head of School, it is pretty compelling to see one student mobilize an entire PK-12 school into action to clean up beaches and come to know our local wildlife. While we can sometimes worry about the amount of disruption and special schedules that these events create, it’s amazing that we have kids who care as much as Quinn does. His passion is authentic, and it goes well beyond any kind of grade motivation. He is off to Unity College next year to take this passion to the next level. I finished my day by enjoying the miracle that Lower School parents know as the Lower S...

Arts Underground

One of Berwick’s great strengths is its arts culture, and I have always felt that there is both a public and private face of this culture. The public face includes our amazing concerts, our ambitious productions, and the various art shows we produce throughout the year. The private face tends to include things like private lessons, coffeehouses, assembly performances, murals painted on walls, and unexpected artistic expressions that emerge on campus throughout the year. One of the great traditions I will miss at Berwick will be the annual recital week in April. So many of our students hone their craft on private music lessons throughout the year in the hopes of having a public performance at this time. Simultaneously, we have a week of performances in the theater and in Chip Harding’s coffeehouse lair – the space he likes to refer to as his “smoldering ruins,” referring to the carnage left there after every Middle School electric guitar class. This year, for my second and final time, I...