It’s 10:00 am. On November 29, 2023, six LJCDS students make their way to St. Louis, MO for the annual Student Diversity Leadership Conference. Three juniors and three sophomores were accepted to participate in this conference, with an intrinsic desire to better understand the value of diversity in independent schools.
Student Diversity Leadership Conference, or SDLC for short, is an annual conference in which students from independent schools all over the country join together to participate in workshops, be a part of affinity spaces, and listen to keynote speakers.
The opening ceremony started off with a bang. First, introductions from Rodney Glasgow and his bright red cape, and then Dr. Gholdy Mohammad on her book Unearthing Joy (A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Teaching and Learning): A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Teaching and Learning, and her principles on teaching. After, faculty was dismissed, onto their own workshops to listen to keynote speakers. More than 2000 students were left in the auditorium to participate in the activity prepared by Rodney Glasgow. First, came a silent exercise where students sat or stood up depending on their answers to identity questions. Then came the speeches. Some of the most powerful words heard during the conference came from minute-long speeches told by the attending students.
Next, students went to their associated family groups, where no two students from the same school were organized together. The purpose of the family groups was to combine students of all backgrounds and perform exercises for the purpose of self-deliberation and identity. Some of these included silent exercises (students react to certain prompts by moving from one side to the other without speaking), “molecule” drawings (students draw a “molecule” connecting different parts of their identity), and overall just sharing vulnerability together.
The next couple of days were more or less similar, starting off with family groups, and then moving to affinity groups after meals. From early mornings to late nights, it’s easy to get exhausted and overwhelmed, but when it comes to passionate students doing things that matter, it can be exhilarating. Whether it was the famous St. Louis barbeque for dinner at Sugarfire Smokehouse on the first night, or ending our journey with chaotic karaoke with people who can’t sing, SDLC was a truly transformative experience that will never be forgotten, and the connections made can never be broken.
