One of the many positive outcomes of the Civil Rights Movement was the effort to diversify the student and faculty bodies of traditional independent schools and colleges. While the idealism that motivated those initial efforts to recruit students from a variety of backgrounds still exists, experience has led us to the conviction that to be an informed citizen of the twenty-first century, one must have an education based on genuine integration and engagement with people and ideas that reflect diverse perspectives and backgrounds.

Greenwich Academy is committed to diversity and understands that dynamic conversations need to be embraced at all levels if we are going to move forward. This point was reinforced ten years ago when I was conducting research for a course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. While the research focused on advocacy groups for students of color at select colleges and universities, it became clear that those campuses that actively supported diversity initiatives and sought to raise the sensitivity of their communities were the same communities that reported more intense exchanges between constituent groups, including students versus administration, students versus students and faculty versus administration. Affirmed voices assert themselves, and educational institutions that represent excellence like Greenwich Academy must have this kind of empowerment as their goal. Whether the lesson learned is fostering greater tolerance in order to deter cliquish behavior or being more comfortable in open exchanges about race and ethnicity, the ultimate goal for all Academy students is to have the confidence and compassion to integrate freely and authentically among people of all races, religions, backgrounds and belief systems

There are currently many initiatives underway at GA that raise awareness, inform the academic and extracurricular programs and, ultimately, affirm all voices. Priorities include recruiting and retaining more students and faculty of color and continuing to implement programs that raise awareness of different religious, ethnic, racial, linguistic and socioeconomic groups. Whether it’s faculty training at the National Summer institute for Cultural Diversity at Milton Academy or students engaging with guest speakers such as author Mark Mathabane, Dr. Justin Richardson, humanitarian Dr. Marion Pritchard or Ronald K. Brown of the Evidence dance troupe, Greenwich Academy grows with each program that embodies its fundamental mission to embrace diversity.

Community service programs also serve to enhance the education and expand the experiences of GA students. There are myriad service opportunities for students in all divisions; Academy girls organize food, clothing and toy drives; serve in soup kitchens in New York and Stamford; build houses for the Lakota Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and travel to India to support GA alumna Shaheen Mistri ’88 in her efforts to enrich the lives of street children in India through the Akanksha Foundation, an organization that she founded in 1990.

Last fall, students from Greenwich Academy and Brunswick School held a Diversity Day, which was sponsored by a branch of the Anti-Defamation League called “A World of Difference.” The program, “Names Can Really Hurt Us,” provided an opportunity for students and faculty to discuss how the community can be more inclusive and able to embrace individual differences, not only in race and ethnicity, but also in other aspects. In addition, in April 2004, GA hosted the second annual Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) Diversity Conference, “Pieces of the Puzzle.” More than 240 students, faculty and administrators from independent schools across the state and from the REACH schools throughout Fairfield and Westchester counties attended.

Greenwich Academy draws from a long and dignified history of service to others and remains committed to an educational process that affirms each voice and genuinely integrates different perspectives. We welcome your thoughts as we grow together.

Please write to me at mking@greenwichacademy.org about your experiences, concerns and questions.