Ten Waverly students and teach­ers will partic­i­pate in the 2020 NAIS People of Color Confer­ence (PoCC) this week. The theme of this year’s confer­ence is ​“New Decade, New Destinies: Chal­leng­ing Self, Chang­ing Systems, and Choos­ing Justice.” PoCC is the flag­ship of the National Asso­ci­a­tion of Inde­pen­dent Schools’ commit­ment to equity and justice in teach­ing, learn­ing, and orga­ni­za­tional devel­op­ment. With semi­nars, a master class, and more than 100 work­shops on diverse topics rele­vant to people of color in inde­pen­dent schools, PoCC equips educa­tors at every level, from teach­ers to trustees with new skills.

Waverly teacher Leo Glazé (MS) will present a work­shop titled, ​“Kids Aren’t Too Young: Start­ing the Conver­sa­tion & Learn­ing About Race/​Racism in the Class­room.” Waverly teach­ers Susan Hendricks (ES), Paul Nam (HS), Bennel Thomp­kins (HS), and Leo Glazé will collec­tively present a work­shop titled, ​“What…No Diver­sity Direc­tor at Your PWI?! How to Build Collec­tive Lead­er­ship as an Alternative.”

Waverly students Andrea H. ​’23, Kazuo H. ​’21, Kenna M. ​’21, Layevska J. ​’21, Lena S. ​’21, and Rui S. ​’21 will take part in PoCC’s Student Diver­sity Lead­er­ship Confer­ence (SDLC). SDLC is a multira­cial, multi­cul­tural gath­er­ing of upper school student leaders (grades nine through twelve) from across the U.S. and abroad. SDLC helps student leaders develop cross-cultural commu­ni­ca­tion skills, design effec­tive strate­gies for social justice prac­tice through dialogue and the arts, and learn the foun­da­tions of ally­ship and networking principles.