Middle School Students Learn Compassion

Today, we bring the experience of two members of the Class of  2020 who headed with some of their peers to the Middle School Diversity Conference accompanied by Mr. Jay Wright. Read on to see what Sasha and Sabrina got out of their day.

On a recent Tuesday, I went to the Haverford School for the Fourth Annual Middle School Diversity Conference. This was a great opportunity for me and all of the sixteen other students from GA who participated. When we first arrived, we were all ready to go and very excited to meet all the new people. When we walked into Haverford’s auditorium, we were welcomed by the conference organizers. Soon after, we were treated to a performance by Dr. Michael Fowlin.

Although the GA students had seen this performance before, it was even more meaningful this time due to the nature of the day. In Dr. Fowlin’s performance, “You Don’t Know Me Until You Know Me”, he transforms himself into a variety of different characters. These characters all had a “mask” on, meaning they had to uncover about themselves.

After the wonderful performance, everyone separated into groups. My group had twelve people in it and each member of my group was from a different school. We had two high school chaperones from the Baldwin School who were there to help us throughout the day. At first we were all very nervous and didn’t really talk at all, but the leaders of the group asked what the best part of the performance to us was. This started conversation since there were many different answers. Each person in my group had different points of view due to our experiences in school and at home. As we all sat around the circle talking about the performance, we got into conversations about different kinds of bullying. Some people said cyberbullying and others said physical bullying. When it was my turn to speak, I brought up disguised bullying. In my opinion, this is the worst form of bullying. It is also known as microaggression. It is when you don’t really know it’s bullying until you know the victim is hurting. My group talked about this and most of them agreed. Some of the group debated if this is the type of bullying that affects people the most, but I expected this because we were all from different backgrounds and have different ways of seeing situations.

After lunch, we went to another auditorium to watch a very inspirational video. The video was about three girls giving their take on how they view the matters of the United States. After the video, we went back to our groups to discuss what we just watched. Everyone in my group thought it was definitely one of a kind. The video brought up points that no one really had discussed which was interesting. After we spent more time in our groups and did more reflecting, we went into another auditorium. There I met up with the rest of the GA representatives.

As a group, we discussed what I heard in my smaller group. Other members of the GA group had a much different conversation than me. They explained how they heard stories of students who had been bullied personally and how they almost committed suicide. During our reflection I noticed how none of the GA students have been directly affected by such experiences. In my opinion, GA does a pretty good job protecting us from all these various forms of bullying. I am grateful for the way GA students and faculty treat each other and support each other.

~ Sasha C. ‘20



Sasha, Sabrina, and the GA contingent at the Middle School Diversity Conference. 

The Middle School Diversity Conference was a memorable day for me. One of the reasons why was the speaker who presented to us at the beginning. His name was Dr. Michael Fowlin and he shared a lot of his memories, good and bad, from his childhood in his act. His act consisted of four characters, which had a part of himself in each. He mentioned the idea that everyone was wearing a mask and not being true to themselves as well as others. I thought to myself if I had a mask on at that very moment. Was I a fake that was influenced by other people that led to the extremes of not even knowing my true self? One of the greatest things I heard during the talk is something that I will never forget. Dr. Fowlin mentioned an event that goes on in some African villages. Whenever someone makes a mistake or does something wrong and regrets it, the whole village circles around that person. You would assume that they would call him negative names. Nope. The whole village showers that person with compliments and reminds them of the positive things they’ve done. This had an impact on me because that is a sign of true respect. The last thing that really stuck with me was when, at the very end of the speech, Dr. Fowlin told the whole auditorium that they are beautiful. Three simple words that had the power to change my mindset towards everyone: “You are beautiful.”

After the talk was finished, we were separated into groups and asked to answer questions aloud. We answered all the questions with 20 minutes remaining, which wasn’t necessarily the best thing. It was silent among our group, but the chatter of the rest of the people in the auditorium was still present. At that very moment, I acknowledged the concept of leadership at GA. I am a new student this year so I value these rules with great significance. I just blurted out that if everyone was just happy, the conflict wouldn’t be there. From this arose talk among the group and put a smile on my face. I learned that if everyone thought they could rely on others to be leaders, then who would be the leaders?

We then watched a short clip about banned books and other inappropriate ideas which are not banned. There was one line I remembered that held great importance. It said To Kill a Mockingbird was banned for using intense language, whereas the KKK website was open to the public. This opened my eyes to take more notice of things that are ethically good or bad. The MS Diversity Conference was unlike any other experience I have ever had and I enjoyed it very much. I hope to go again next year so that I’ll keep up the knowledge of these subjects and that I remember that I’m beautiful.

~Sabrina M. ‘20