Tiffany Armour ’25, Clara Berg ’25, Nicola Dadlani ’25, Lauren Park ’25 and Dylan Wuo ’25 were selected as Co-Chairs for Student Leaders for Inclusion, Diversity and Equality (SLIDE) for the 2024-2025 school year.
Visual Arts Teacher and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Coordinator Reb Limerick said SLIDE Co-Chairs are responsible for fostering teamwork, creating unity and aiding affinity group leaders through obstacles.
“[The Co-Chairs] are there to promote cohesion and harmony amongst affinity groups, and help with collaboration as well as hold affinity groups accountable and offer them support if they’re experiencing challenges,” Limerick said. “They work directly with administration and faculty and staff [through] presentations and town halls with Prefect Council and other student leadership groups on campus.”
Limerick said a Co-Chair must demonstrate initiative and a willingness to advocate for the issues they support at the school.
“We look for students who have already exhibited strong leadership around campus and [have] spoken up for causes that they believe in or been upstanders to their fellow students,” Limerick said.
Berg said she aims to facilitate events centered around celebrating individuality and expressing students’ different social and cultural backgrounds.
“Next year, I want to help SLIDE emphasize joy stemming from our identities,” Berg said. “SLIDE is a space to discuss issues and ideas, but I also would love to find time for trivia, board games, art and music within affinity groups and outside of the meetings. Students should be able to be comfortable on campus, take pride in their identities and feel represented and celebrated.”
Berg said she plans to create more opportunities for students to share their opinions and ideas with SLIDE about changes for the future.
“I’d like to develop an anonymous, optional questionnaire where individual students can voice their experiences and concerns and bring SLIDE’s attention to what they want to see change around campus relating to inclusivity,” Berg said. “I love our school, and I know we can only improve by listening to students.”
Berg said she intends to use her position to welcome people of all backgrounds and support them in celebrating their identities.
“We’ll be revamping quite a bit, and I want our community to start talking about LGBTQ+ experiences that may slip under the radar,” Berg said. “We’ll be talking about current events, queer history, pop culture, playing gay bingo and singing karaoke. I look forward to celebrating queerness, and welcoming the whole school with open minds and open hearts.”
Wuo said he wants to increase the Asian Students in Action (ASiA) club’s involvement in affinity group town halls and widen SLIDE’s reach beyond the school community.
“From my experience in ASiA, I have enjoyed the town halls that are organized between different affinity groups,” Wuo said. “This allows for there to be a greater connection between groups and for a greater sharing of ideas. However, this year, ASiA has only engaged in one, and I feel like having more of these would allow leaders and participants of affinity groups to gain more perspectives on DEI issues inside and outside the classroom. Whether it’s fairs or other initiatives, having outside relations can make more positive changes in the school community.”
Wuo said one of his priorities for next year is improving connection and inclusion within the student body.
“Some of the issues that are important to me are finding expression in the classroom and in other activities through one’s identity,” Wuo said. “Identity can go beyond ethnicity, gender or other pieces. I feel like these pieces are central to expressing yourself and finding joy in the things that you do. In order to foster conversation about these topics, I would highlight the need for recognizing others’ ideas, as this would not only make participants feel expressed but also comfortable.”
