MKA Community Takes Diversity and Inclusion as Focus for Summer Work

As MKA strives to authentically deliver on its mission to recognize complexity and value empathy, several initiatives were taken over the summer to help realize the school’s goal of becoming a truly inclusive community.

In late August, MKA’s full faculty and staff benefited from a remarkable day of in-service when Dr. Steven Jones, a nationally recognized expert in the field of cultural competency, led a workshop focusing on the practical application of knowledge, awareness and skills to help achieve more effective interactions in the face of individual, group and institutional differences. 

Dr. Jones returned to campus for a second day to meet with smaller groups –including MKA’s Diversity Coordinators, the Administrative Council, the Admissions Office, students and parents (drawn from MKA’s new Parent Diversity Committee) – to better understand the challenges they feel they face and to offer strategies to increase every member of the community’s feeling of being respected and valued at MKA, regardless of gender, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or learning style.

As the adults in the community were challenged to think harder about their own interactions - to understand the importance of listening rather than merely responding, and to better appreciate that an intention can result in an unforeseen impact – so too were MKA’s students prepared for some self-reflection with a summer reading assignment that dealt with the theme of ability.

Each campus read an age-appropriate work to help facilitate discussion over the first weeks back at school.  Primary School students and faculty read My Brother Charlie, Middle School read Wonder and the Upper School read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night.

Looking forward, Dr. Jones will return to MKA on November 9 to provide an opportunity for the Board of Trustees and the greater parent body to learn from his insights and expertise, while on February 26, 2014, PAMKA’s Academy Forum will feature nationally acclaimed writer Andrew Solomon, author of Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity.

“The responsibility to function as an inclusive community is always ongoing, and we are grateful for the expertise that Dr. Jones brought to MKA. “ Notes Headmaster Thomas W. Nammack.  “He has helped to more sharply focus our efforts, and we are very fortunate to be a community that strives to be worthy of the diversity that characterizes MKA.”