Diversity, Equity,
Inclusion & Belonging

at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & belonging (deib)

At SCH, we curate brave spaces. We stimulate meaningful discussions, and encourage students to show up and engage. Our Diversity Leadership Team—consisting of faculty members from each division overseen by our director, Maxime Sinal—works hard to ensure that every member of the SCH community feels seen and valued.

deib STATEMENT

Diversity is a condition of excellence. Embracing a diverse, inclusive community is fundamental to providing the most rigorous, globally competitive education. At SCH, we aim to engage, understand, and celebrate the broad range of human experiences and perspectives. Through our curriculum, professional development, community-centered events, and daily interactions, we are committed to cultivating empathy and inclusion, and to nurturing the authentic expression of every individual.

We are an inclusive community on a mission to inspire unbounded curiosity and independent thought in every one of our students.

SCH MISSION STATEMENT

SCH's Aspirations for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (DEIB)

Aspirations for Student Body

SCH aspires to enroll a student body that is ever more reflective of the communities we serve and for every student to experience the diversity of the SCH community. We seek an environment where every student, particularly students from underrepresented groups, feels a strong sense of belonging at SCH. Ours is a community of families actively engaged with recruitment of new students and families, and we aspire for the full SCH community to be engaged in articulating the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices to those seeking to learn more about SCH.

Aspirations for Families

SCH aspires to be a school sought out by families who also view diversity as a condition of excellence and key “to nurturing the authentic expression of every individual”. We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion must be continually woven and re-woven into formal and informal learning, so that all members of the SCH community feel welcome and a sense of belonging in whatever opportunities they choose to pursue in their careers at SCH.

Aspirations for leadership, faculty, & staff

SCH aspires for school leadership, faculty, and staff to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve, the city and region, and the student body. We believe in providing an inclusive and supportive environment where all teachers, particularly teachers of color, feel a strong sense of belonging at SCH, feel comfortable in expressing their opinions to others, and feel supported in their careers. SCH pursues initiatives to identify and hire outstanding teachers and administrators from underrepresented groups to meet our aspiration of a diverse and inclusive faculty to reflect the full breadth of our society for our students.

We believe these aspirations set a high bar, and we acknowledge there remains work to be done in many areas. We put forth these aspirations so that our efforts towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion have clear direction and result in meaningful change.

SCH Board of Trustees

OUR FOUR PILLARS OF ACTION

1.

Creating a platform for discourse with current parents within the community via three scheduled and themed parent forums.

2.

Forming a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee comprised of board members, alumni, faculty, and parents to consider and recommend practices and policy across all aspects of SCH; the committee will continue to meet monthly.

3.

Hiring a workforce at SCH that better represents the diversity of the student body.

4.

Training our faculty and staff in DEI, rethinking curriculum, and analyzing the lens through which we teach.

ENGAGEMENT ON CAMPUS

Diversity SCHout Conference

SCH Academy's SCHOUT Conference is hosted annually for high school students and mature eighth graders. Each year, our student diversity leaders choose a theme around which to take on issues of identity and social justice through student-led social action workshops.

This February 3, 2024, SCH hosted its 9th annual conference for over 200 students and educators from far and wide. Each year our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, SCH Academy’s most committed student DEI leaders, choose a theme for SCHout. Last year, DEI Council coalesced around the theme, “Road Trip: Journey Through Understanding". After months of prep work, 40+ SCH student facilitators will lead the activities and workshops designed for student attendees.

SCHout Conference 2024

Moments of Understanding

In November 2019, student facilitators successfully held their first of four Moments of Understanding in which all students in the Upper School participated in discussions surrounding the theme of identity and allyship and ways in which we can all support our LGBTQ+ community.

In February 2020, the second Moment of Understanding took place. The theme was The Power of Language & Discussions on Racial Privilege. Marlo Thomas, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Georgetown Day School, spoke with both Upper and Middle School students on this very important topic.

In November 2020, the Upper School virtually hosted bestselling author Ishmael Beah (author of A Long Way Gone: A Memoir of a Boy Solider) which chronicles his experiences as a child soldier during the 1990's Sierra Leone civil war. Beah's stories offered a global perspective and opportunity to communicate how his lived experiences have led him to find connections across differences and beauty in our shared humanity. His talk set the stage for an hour-long Narrative 4 "Story Exchange" where the entire high school participated, online, one-on-one and in groups—sharing across grades and backgrounds that have shaped their lives, experiences and perspectives.

Lower School Curriculum

It's never too early to start the conversation! This fall, our Lower School will be incorporating a diversity curriculum called BREATHE (Be Ready to Embrace All Through Hope and Equality).

By opening the conversation to our youth and creating a safe place, we believe that we can overcome the biases that seep into our society and help our children to understand and embrace others. Learning, not only how to communicate, but how to listen is an important part of being a thoughtful member of our community and helping to build a world of love—not hate.

Objectives:

Help students learn to listen to each other.
Facilitate a safe space for students to talk openly about feelings and curiosities.
Teach students how to have constructive conversations about difficult issues and personal reflections.

Middle School Curriculum

Middle School students will take part in conversations called AEIOU (Awareness, Empathy, Inclusivity, Difference, & Understanding). AEIOU is our advisory curriculum that focuses on diversity and inclusion. Through AEIOU, we create safe spaces for students to explore their own identities and the identities of others.

Through these conversations, we aim to equip our students with a nuanced understanding of how one’s myriad and intersectional identities affect their walks through the world and empower them to be upstanders and changemakers.

Upper School Curriculum

In alignment with our mission to engage, understand, and celebrate the broad range of human experiences and perspectives, SCH upper school students participate in conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in advisory curriculum, in their academic classes, and through the clubs and activities they choose to join, such as Black Student Union, Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Voices, Jewish Culture Club, Chinese Students Group, Alliance (anti-racist ally group), Student Facilitators (diversity leadership training), and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. (Along with the above mentioned "Moments of Understanding" and "SCHout Conference" which are geared towards upper school student participation.)

We strive to imbue in every graduate of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy a set of competencies that make up “cultural humility,” which we believe is necessary to successfully navigate our global society. These competencies include:

A practice of introspection and an understanding of one’s own intersectional identities.
A commitment to building community through deep listening and the practice of empathy.
The courage and resilience required to engage in conversations about DEI issues.
An understanding of systems of power, privilege and oppression.
A sense of responsibility for dismantling these systems.

Staff & Faculty Professional Development

In the fall of 2019, all teachers and division heads spent a day of professional development learning from Marlo Thomas, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Georgetown Day School, about the power of language and how to address derogatory terms in classic literature.

In 2020, all SCH faculty and staff will be taking part in exercises and discussions that help unpack and understand the many facets of inequity, injustice, and oppression that we are all working to dismantle, as well as the role that aged institutions across the country have played.

Lower School faculty participated in a full day of professional development to learn about the Pollyanna Racial Literacy Curriculum and spend time in small groups discussing how to fit this critical work into the curriculum in order to teach it this year. The work is designed to help students gain knowledge about race as it has been constructed in the United States, and aims to help students acquire an awareness of their own racial socialization and skills for engaging in productive conversations about race and racism.

Upper and Middle School faculty engaged in professional development to prepare for advisory conversations about the Black Lives Matter movement, the disproportional impact of Covid-19 on Black and Brown Americans, and the wave of social media postings regarding students’ experiences at independent high schools in Philadelphia and around the country.

Clubs, Activities, & After-School Events

SCH is also home to many student-led clubs which actively participate in discussions and host events, seeking to make both the SCH community and the world a more inclusive place.

Upper School student groups include the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee (DEI), Black Student Union (BSU), Alliance Group, Gay Straight Alliance (GSA), Voices, SAGE (Student Advocates for Gender Equality), and more.

Middle School student groups include BSU (Black Student Union), Gender and Sexuality Alliance, and Diversity Club.

Every year, we also host a Multicultural & Diversity Festival. This is an afternoon when SCH celebrates cultural diversity and global harmony through food, music, dance performances, crafts, and cultural displays. In early 2020, we hosted our 18th annual event!

MEET THE DIVERSITY LEADERSHIP TEAM

Maxime sinal

Director of diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging

msinal@sch.org

Geraldine allen

lower school
diversity coordinator

lower school boys faculty

gallen@sch.org

ZANA BASS

middle school
diversity coordinator

world languages faculty

zbass@sch.org

polly kimberly

upper school
diversity coordinator

associate director of college counseling

pkimberly@sch.org

Meet Maxime Sinal, Director of DEIB at SCH Academy

Maxime Sinal joined the SCH team as the new director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) this past summer. With a strong background in education and diversity, Sinal brings a wealth of experience to the role. Before joining SCH, he served as the diversity coordinator and English department chair at The Wardlaw-Hartridge School and, since 2016, has served as a DEIB facilitator for the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). At NAIS, he collaborated with experts across the country to develop innovative DEIB programs and initiatives.

One thing that’s always struck me is how robust SCH’s commitment is to elevating and affirming a diversity of perspectives and identities.

SCH PARENT of Lower School Students