Your gifts to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Initiatives on SCH Day will be put to work in our community in support of the following programming. 

Lower School
Our Lower School incorporates a diversity curriculum called BREATHE (Be Ready to Embrace All Through Hope and Equality). By opening the conversation to our youth and creating a safe space, we believe that we can overcome the biases that seep into our society and help our children to understand and embrace others.  Learning, not only how to communicate, but also how to listen is an important part of being a thoughtful member of our community and helping to build a world of love—not hate.

Middle School
Middle School students take part in conversations called AEIOU (Awareness, Empathy, Inclusivity, Difference, & Understanding). AEIOU is our advisory curriculum that focuses on diversity and inclusion. Through AEIOU, we create safe spaces for students to explore their own identities and the identities of others. Through these conversations, we aim to equip our students with a nuanced understanding of how one’s myriad and intersectional identities affect their walks through the world and empower them to be upstanders and changemakers.

Upper School 
In alignment with our mission to engage, understand, and celebrate the broad range of human experiences and perspectives, SCH Upper School students participate in conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in advisory curriculum, in their academic classes, and through the clubs and activities they choose to join, such as Black Student Union, Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Voices, Jewish Culture Club, Chinese Students Group, Alliance (anti-racist ally group), Student Facilitators (diversity leadership training), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, and others. In addition, Upper School students are invited to take part in the above-mentioned "Moments of Understanding" and our annual SCHout Conference.

Faculty & Staff
We are dedicated to training our faculty and staff in DEIB practices, rethinking curriculum, and analyzing the lens through which we teach. We also offer professional development opportunities throughout the year. Most recently, faculty from SCH and visiting schools had the opportunity to hear from speaker Ineda “Corrien” Elmore-Stratton who led an interactive workshop on coping with burnout and fatigue while leading diversity, equity, and inclusion work in schools.

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We strive to imbue in every graduate of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy a set of competencies that make up “cultural humility,” which we believe is necessary to successfully navigate our global society. These competencies include:

• A practice of introspection and an understanding of one’s own intersectional identities.
• A commitment to building community through deep listening and the practice of empathy.
• The courage and resilience required to engage in conversations about DEI issues.
• An understanding of systems of power, privilege, and oppression.
• A sense of responsibility for dismantling these systems.

We continue to work toward a culture of belonging at SCH.