What CA Means to Me

Jen

English Teacher, Assistant Dean for Community and Equity
Cambridge, MA

Please describe the community and equity model. How is CA’s approach, through that model, unique among schools?

CA's Community and Equity Office operates on the important principle that strengthening community, celebrating difference, and promoting equity are the shared responsibility of all community members. The fact that the office consists of four classroom teachers working in close cooperation with the dean of students and community life anchors our work in the heart of the school and allows us to benefit from a wide web of relationships with students and colleagues. The opportunity to gather as an entire school community for monthly programs is an extraordinary benefit, a rich resource of time that allows us to host wide-reaching discussions on a broad scope of topics.

Why do you think community and equity is effective here?

I think the work of the Community and Equity Office has been successful because it is essentially collaborative. The team approach brings multiple perspectives and opinions into all of our planning. The monthly programming has directly engaged students and adults—as both participants and facilitators—in conversations and learning experiences that we hope have promoted cross-cultural exchange and increased bonds within the community. And we have worked to make it clear that we invite and value constant communication and feedback. Students, colleagues, parents, and alumnae/i are in touch regularly to give us feedback, ask us questions, raise concerns, and celebrate successes.

Overall, how would you describe the school’s commitment to diversity?

CA's commitment to diversity; the openness with which meaty, challenging topics are discussed; and the school’s willingness to examine and re-examine itself have impressed me from the beginning of my time here. Indeed, that commitment is, in part, what drew me here eleven years ago. And I feel that the launch of the Community and Equity Office in 2007 represented a renewal of our vows to honor the central place that embracing diversity holds in our mission.

What are some of the highlights of the community and equity programming for you?

Two moments come immediately to mind as highlights. The first is less of a moment and more of an extraordinary immersion experience. David Hilliard, the former chief of staff of the Black Panther Party, flew in from California the night before our January 2008 Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. Members of the C and E team and one of our student coheads of diversity met him for dinner, beginning—over conversation at the Colonial Inn—an amazing opportunity to hear a firsthand account of some of the most dramatic moments in social change in U.S. history. As Mr. Hilliard spoke to the student body the next morning, I was aware that the Black Panther movement carried a strong and sometimes threatening legacy. The mild-mannered Mr. Hilliard showed slides that presented some other sides to their work, including the Panthers’ very successful and innovative free breakfast program for children in need. When I invited questions at the end of his presentation, I looked out into a sea of raised hands. Never had I seen our Performing Arts Center so full of engaged interest. The questions from our students were so smart, so thoughtful, so wide-ranging that I got very choked up.

The other moment is much simpler. As I passed our College Counseling Office on a February morning on my way to the Faculty Room, a student I barely knew asked, “Jen, is the next C and E program this week or next?” It suddenly hit me that this new acronym we’d given this new office had found its way into the community parlance, and that the rhythm of our regular, schoolwide gatherings had gotten into the bloodstream of the school. What had been nothing more than sketched plans as we resumed school that September had become concrete.

What has changed the most (and stayed the same) during your time here?

CA always has an exciting undercurrent of change, and yet the core of the school remains just as I discovered it over a decade ago. While remaining true to its mission, to the great value placed on individualism, to central traditions like senior chapels, CA always asks whether we are doing things in the ideal way. During my tenure here, we have been willing to restructure our daily schedule, reimagine functions of different parts of the campus, make adjustments to the administrative structure, reengineer how we approach diversity work, and launch countless new courses, new programs, new initiatives—and yet I don't think anything about the school would feel unfamiliar to a returning alum who graduated the year I arrived.

You’ve got administrative duties now, as assistant dean for community and equity. Why is it important that you keep teaching?

The opportunity I have to work with students in the classroom is sacred to me. Our students are remarkable. I walk out of so many of the classes I teach feeling a little breathless in reaction to the deep thought I've just witnessed. I can teach the same books year after year and be certain that my students will make discoveries and connections that are fresh, new, and therefore thrilling. It's a privilege to be a classroom teacher here.

What do you like best about teaching?

Our small classes form unique class cultures over the course of a semester. I always get very attached to the little communities within a community that my classes become. Students here are respectful, curious, enthusiastic, playful, and intense at the same time. A treat!

Describe a time a CA student has surprised or inspired you.

I'm very sappy about CA students. I'm very moved when a student who has struggled with grammar gets a perfect score on a quiz; when a student who has never performed before gets up on stage in a freshman project play; when a senior has a particularly cathartic chapel, in which he or she shares something with the community that we might not have known before; when an advisee stops by to tell me that she got the summer job she was hoping for; when someone takes time to thank me for teaching him something. I'm constantly impressed and inspired by the kids here.