Lakeside School

In my role as the director of equity and inclusion, I get to meet with a lot of candidates who are seeking a job at Lakeside School. Most of them ask the question: What are the students like at Lakeside? The first couple of times I had to answer this question, I struggled to find a short but concrete answer. There are so many qualities that make us who we are as a school — it’s hard to pick just two or three that do our culture any justice.

But in reflecting on our community, I found the words that fit! What I love about Lakeside students is that there are so many different interests and talents that exist in our community. Passion and curiosity drive so many of our students to explore, discover, engage, and take action.

Over the years I’ve learned about so many different alumni of our school who have applied their passion and curiosity to their interests and soared. There are alums that are sourcing water for communities that don’t have clean water and others that are building tiny houses for people experiencing homelessness. Alums that run businesses that elevate and promote woman-, BIPOC-, and LGBTQ+-owned businesses, voices, and experiences, and alums that are artists who use their mediums to create the world we want to see. There are countless number of alums that start or work with NGOs, work for local or federal governments, or act philanthropically to support community needs and vulnerable populations of underrepresented categories. And let’s not forget the number of alumni we have in our school community right now, who came back to Lakeside to make it a better school for future generations. There is a strong culture of taking our strengths, passions, skills, and resources to give back to the community to improve the lives of others. It makes me proud to be a part of a community that is graduating young adults that think beyond themselves and dedicate themselves to building a better future.

One of the highlights of my year was seeing our current Lakeside students bring their passions, strengths, and skills to the work of equity and inclusion at the school. In classrooms, publications, clubs, and affinity groups, students have been creating opportunities to recognize and honor the multicultural nature of our community. Sometimes this happened through leading conversations about anti-racism and the LGBTQ+ experience, like the leaders of the Upper School affinity groups; sometimes through working together on a publication, like the editors of Imago did with BSU and GLOW; sometimes through sustained reporting on equity and inclusion issues in the student newspapers, Tatler and Leo; and sometimes using the platform and resources of student government and student council to push for institutional change.

Every student is at a different place in developing an equity and inclusion mindset. For many students, the first step toward leadership in this area is participation, and engaging in the conversations, experiences, and activities created by their peers. It is in the nature of adolescents and teenagers to look to each other for guidance and support — which is why student leadership in this area is so critical. We can all learn from them when it comes to building an inclusive and equitable community, where every student feels like they belong.