Reigniting Your Fire For Justice

April 2024

This April, 4 students from my school and I took a day trip to Hopkins High School in Connecticut–about 40 minutes away from my school–to attend the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools SDLC. After my wonderful experience in SDLC St. Louis that previous November, I was extremely excited to witness another much needed day of learning about culture and the appreciation of differences. 

Unfortunately, this trip didn’t turn out to be exactly what I had imagined it would be. The day started off amazing with a welcoming speech about the gravity of inclusivity. We were then separated into groups based on grade. Once I entered the group for 11th grade, I noticed there were around 50 of us in a small classroom. Once again, I felt slightly isolated. No one in that crowd looked like me or had similar experiences to me. On top of that, instead of focusing on the positives and rich culture behind everyone’s one similarity, diversity, the facilitators seemed to encourage negative comments and stereotypes. They asked us to share experiences where we felt discriminated against by our peers, and the atmosphere which once started as hopeful and positive quickly became negative, angry, and resentful. 

As grateful as I was to go on this trip and experience new perspectives on culture and discrimination, I felt that during this trip, we lingered on the painful effects of discrimination instead of uplifting each other by offering support, celebrating our differences, and opening our minds to learn about each other’s culture. 

Nonetheless, I left Hopkins feeling like I learned more about perspectives and the gravity of discrimination that I didn’t know before.

https://www.stlukesct.org/News-Detail?pk=1585804&utm_source=looped_issue8&utm_content=story11&utm_campaign=23_24