Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Mikael Yisrael, coordinated a visit to the Quaker School at Horsham on December 5, where student facilitators worked with faculty and staff there to discuss experiences with diversity, microaggressions and appreciating individual differences. Student Noah Lloyd ’21 shared his reflections on the experience.

Open Your Eyes to the New World by Noah Lloyd 

At AFS, we pride ourselves on our welcoming, secure, and diverse school and strive every day toward acceptance and understanding, not only within the student body, but the faculty as well. At the meeting with Quaker School at Horsham, we began by introducing ourselves and stating why diversity work was so important to us. We then defined a list of terms that related to diversityand microaggressions to familiarize everyone with the material. Then, AFS students led an activity about microaggressions and the conscious or unconscious intent behind language. By the end of the “class,” I was astounded by the amount of change I observed. We taught adults – teachers who are people we are used to following – and were able to exercise power we don’t usually hold, and we managed to observe revelations and a change in demeanor from them; it was so rewarding.

In my introduction, I told the group that diversity work was important to me because I believe every voice should be heard and no one voice should represent a group of people. I witnessed that sharing multiple voices is important during this exercise. The group shared stories about the struggles of the marginalized and oppressed. The short time we spent together caused recognition and change within the group. I think they recognized the “blindspots” within themselves, but I also think us just opening up the discussion made them think about changing and what they could do better.