Bending the Arc Toward Justice: Radical Optimism, Transformational Joy, Resilience, and Brilliance.

December 2023

Last month, I spent the most eye-opening four days in St. Louis, Missouri. As President of my school’s Asian Affinity Group, I was given the opportunity to travel across the country along with five other leaders of affinity groups from my school and participate in the annual national People of Color Conference as a part of SDLC, Student Diversity Leadership Conference. The NAIS Student Diversity Leadership Conference is a multiracial, multicultural gathering of student leaders from eligible independent high schools across the U.S. and abroad. At first, I didn’t think much of this trip. It was just a event that my school had chosen me to attend. In fact, on the plane ride to Missouri, all I could think about was the homework I would need to catch up on when I got back.

There were approximately ten of us on the plane: me, another junior, four other seniors, each a leader of their own respective affinity group, and four teachers acting as chaperones. When we first arrived in St. Louis, after checking in at the hotel and dropping our luggage off, we entered a humongous building reserved especially for the conference. We got our name tags and called it a night. 

The next morning at around 7am, we entered the hall to check in. All 10 of us gathered in an enormous auditorium among 7,000 other students and teachers. A woman walked onto the stage exuding confidence and excitement. She began by welcoming us to the National Association of Independent Schools annual SDLC and PoCC Conference. For the next 30 minutes, my peers and I were entranced as she unwaveringly spoke about the struggles of discrimination, the beauty of culture, and the power of inclusivity. She introduced the theme of this year's SDLC: “Bending the Arc Toward Justice: Radical Optimism, Transformational Joy, Resilience, and Brilliance.”

Over the course of the next few days, I had learned so much about how to be inclusive, the power of cultures, and embracing differences instead of concealing them. Every time we entered that auditorium, around 3,000 students of all different races, communities, groups, and religions swarmed around me with a common goal: striving towards equity and inclusion. With every new student I met, I found new ideas, a new culture, and a new perspective. 

In a sea of new experiences that I received from my time at SDLC, the highlight was the Affinity Groups. I am the only Indian girl in my entire highschool. There aren’t any teachers or peers that I can relate to on a cultural level. Eventually, by feeling isolated in the one building where I spend all my time, I had forgotten what it felt like to connect with people who looked like me. I had gradually stopped talking about my culture with my friends at school, stopped mentioning Bollywood movies I loved, and learned to adapt to their culture instead. When I first stepped into the South Asian Affinity group at SDLC, I instantly felt at home. For the first time in 3 years, instead of feeling different, I saw 50 girls who looked like me! I had a favorite Bollywood movie in common with more than 10 people. I talked to a girl from Tennessee about stereotypes for 30 minutes. I had known her for 5 minutes and I somehow felt like we were living the same life. I felt more connected with them in an hour than I had felt with my friends at school in 3 years. 

Coming out of those four days, I developed my cross-cultural communication skills by having the opportunity to design effective strategies for social justice through dialogue with my peers. I learned the importance and foundations of allyship, group work, and networking principles. 

Not only did my experience at SDLC provide me with skills I will be able to harness for the rest of my life, but it also rekindled my joy for appreciating cultures. It sparked that fire of interest in me that I hadn’t been in touch with at my school.