What are WFS students’ attitudes towards race, religion and sexual identity? Questions about diversity in WFS were pondered at the Diversity Orientation, an event held for newcomers to WFS high school.  This event is relatively new at Wilmington Friends school; this was its second year. All freshmen and students new to the upper school participated: the event aimed to educate people about privilege and the value of diversity in our community.

The Workshop was held on October 26, and began with a speech from Head of Upper School Rebecca Zug. She explained that the purpose of the Diversity Orientation is to build a community with inclusivity and diversity. She introduced student leaders from the high school who helped to facilitate the activities. After Zug’s speech, the freshmen were split into advisory groups to share their thoughts and feelings about diversity. In order to make the sharing as honest and open as possible, the student leaders asked the freshmen to make certain ground rules for this small group session and to further discuss why each rule is important. After the small group discussion an activity called the “privilege walk.” In it, the leader will read out statements that pertain to privilege (i.e. ‘I have never felt uncomfortable expressing my gender identity’, ‘I can afford to go to college’) and those who find the statement to be true stepped forward, while those for whom the statement is false step back. It was designed to identify both obstacles and benefits experienced in our lives. Students then gathered in the Library to watch a short clip from the film Cracking the Codes; specifically, the story of racial inequality a black woman experienced at her neighborhood grocery store.  This film was debriefedd in advisory groups. The third activity let students to illustrate the different views, values, and ideas pertaining to diversity. The leader of that group read off a series of statements. After each statement, students placed themselves in the room depending on whether they agree or disagreem. The final activity was the Human Knot; this game gained a lot of positive feedback from the freshmen, who said it is fun to play and really links with the main purpose of the orientation.

According to Gustavo Silveira ’17, one of the student leaders of this event, “Everyone involved in the workshop put in time and energy to make it work; a broad spectrum of identities were represented by the volunteer student facilitators, and a number of teachers who were not directly involved in the activities gave their time and their rooms to help make the workshop successful.” The Diversity Orientation was liked by many freshmen. Lilia Machado ’20 remarked, “I liked the Diversity Workshop because it reflects who we are as a school and brings out student’s openness about religion, sex and a lot other good things.” It emphasises the value of diversity at WFS and gives students an standard expectation for their speaking and behavior at this school.  All in all, the 2016 Diversity Orientation was a success for everyone involved.