List of 6 frequently asked questions.

• Dispatches from DEI - September 2022

  Dispatch from DEI - September 30

  What a deep joy it has been to expand the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion this Fall. We have kicked off the year with a spirit of inquiry, prioritizing opportunities to listen, while simultaneously centering moments of joy and learning. Camping began with a film screening and conversation around outdoor equity while centering films by Faith Briggs and Brooklyn Bell. We have spent September centering the overlapping and intersecting arches of social and environmental justice by meeting with student and family affinity groups, celebrating the Mid Autumn Festival, Latinx Heritage Month, Rosh Hashanah, and participating in the Global Day of Climate Action with the Environmental Action Committee. We are committed to creating scaffolding for our affinity groups and finding new ways to support and uplift the many different identities on campus. Our work started by collaborating with student and faculty leaders over the summer to get insight into the history of these spaces. These groups are given time during community dinners and through bi-weekly meetings during the school days. Students and faculty can find us in the Multicultural Center during office hours held on Monday, Tuesday, every other Thursday, and Friday, and by appointment throughout the week. Signing off with deep gratitude! 

  
  

  In Community, 

  Sepideah Mohsenian-Rahman and Christian Garris

• Dispatches from DEI - October 2022

  Dispatches from DEI October 2022
  
  

  We are coming out of Fall Family Weekend with a spirit of gratitude to all. Meeting parents and family members, some of whom graduated from Thacher themselves, expands our understanding of community and care in 2022. 

  
  

  With the help of the Alumni and Development Office, faculty members welcomed family affinity groups into their homes. Family affinity groups have mostly met virtually over the last year and it was wonderful to be back in community in person. Student-led moments are such an energizing part of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and through their efforts the month has felt like one huge celebration.

   

  Starting the month off with moments of connection around Yom Kippur and Nigerian Independence Day, ramping up to a dance hosted by SPECTRUM, and a Latinx Heritage month Open House hosted in collaboration with Latinos Unidos and the Head of School, and ending it with Diwali and Dia de los Muertos highlights the excitement and interconnected spirit of student organizing, community, and momentum on campus. Welcoming Jason Collins and Ozomatli to campus as Head’s Invites was icing on the cake. 

  
  

  Programmatically, the Office of DEI started off the month with a trip to the Chumash Intertribal PowWow in Santa Ynez which laid a strong foundation for Convocation Remarks by Emma Robbins, a Diné artist, activist, and community organizer, together with special guest Partick Tumamait, Chumash elder. We heard from the curators of O.J.A.I. the Ojai Arts Jail Initiative, which used an abolitionist lens to be curious about the old building on the bike path and to speak to the work of six artists in activating this space and being in conversation with folks currently incarcerated throughout California.

  
  

  In Community, 

  Sepideah Mohsenian-Rahman and Christian Garris

• Dispatches from DEI - November 2022

  A Monthly Message from Sepideah Mohsenian-Rahman, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Christian Garris, Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
   
  We hope that you had a restorative week with your students at home, and we sure are happy to have them back on campus! Before heading home, students shared a decolonized meal centering a movement around food cultures that celebrates Indigenous ingredients, relations to the land, and traditions that come from it. At the center of our plates, the three sisters. For International Students who were unable to return home for the week, we gathered while on campus to share a traditional fall meal and reflect on our time together. 
  
  

  Earlier in the month, Latinos Unidos created an ofrenda for the Thacher Community to celebrate Día de Muertos, and coordinated a 5k in honor of those who are no longer with us. SPECTRUM hosted a beach trip with students from the Cate School LGBTQIA+ Affinity Group to catch some early fall rays.
  
  Thacher Asian Student Society, Black Student Union, and Latinos Unidos went on an Alternative History Tour of Santa Barbara, exploring the Indigenous, Chicanx, Asian, and Black histories within the city. This work was inspired by recent research by organizers of Healing Justice SB and Santa Barbara Architectural Historian Nicole Hernandez (who led the tour for our students) that was published this past summer celebrating over 400 years of Black history in Santa Barbara. The Black Student Union took a trip to Wakanda as well, to check out a screening of Black Panther in community with one another. We rounded out the month with a virtual screening of a talk from Brandon Wolf, co-founder of the Dru Project. These adventures could not happen—in curiosity or practice—without amazing faculty advisors to these groups. 
  
  

  This week, we are off with 14 faculty and students to the NAIS Student Diversity Leadership Conference and People of Color Conference in San Antonio, TX. Can’t wait to report back soon! 
  
  

  In Community,
  
  Sepideah Mohsenian-Rahman and Christian Garris 

• Dispatches from DEI - December 2022

  A Monthly Message from Sepideah Mohsenian-Rahman, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Christian Garris, Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  
  

  Happy holidays to you and yours from the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. From Hannukah, to Solstice, to Kwanza, and Christmas—we hope that you are able to experience the best of the season with your children at home. 

   

  We made the most of the few weeks on campus in December, which started off with faculty and students heading to San Antonio, Texas for the NAIS Student Diversity Leadership Conference and People of Color Conference. These learnings are an excellent segue into the MLK Jr. Symposium we have planned for the Thacher community and beyond when students return in January. The convening will be rooted in the theme “Belonging as a Practice of Freedom” and will welcome the Intersectional Environmentalist Leah Thomas as one of the keynotes. 

   

  We also welcomed 17 families from 11 states to campus for our admissions fly-in program. The fly-In program is modeled after colleges and universities who bring prospective students and their families to campus. Our version is intended for families who would benefit from visiting a boarding school and normally wouldn’t be able to afford to do so. The two-day program included dinner with the Hoopers, demo classes with Dr. Spinney and Dr. Qalandar, assembly with a sneak preview of the Holiday concert, lunch with affinity group student leaders, time at the barns with our horse faculty, and an overview of afternoon programs at the outdoor chapel. This was the first time since 2019 that we were able to host this program in person. 
  
  

  Student and adult affinity group leaders met on the morning of December 12th for our first affinity group retreat. As a group we worked through some grounding exercises, followed by a deep reflection of the year so far, and some planning of events across affinity groups for the spring. We will host one more retreat in the spring that will focus on leadership and legacy and hopefully welcome all the new student affinity group leaders back for a pre-season retreat in the fall. 
  
  

  In Community, 
  Sepideah and Christian

• Dispatches from DEI - January 2023

  Thank you for tuning to the livestream of the MLK Jr. Symposium on January 16th. Recordings from a student panel featuring Tristan O. '23, Faith S. '23, Yenny S. '23, Julian T. '23, Nil E. '24, Lily C. '24, and Imani B. '26, and keynote remarks from Albert Nascimento (Glasgow Group) and Leah Thomas (Intersectional Environmentalist) can be found below. Highlights from the day included workshops from The Healing Space, Zinn Education Project, and more. Each students engaged with the theme of “belonging as a practice of freedom” in an individual way, as workshops ranged from wellness offerings and embodied notions of belonging and intellectual inquiry with scholars and community organizers to arts-based practices of naming and knowing. 

   

  Later in the month, Lunar New Year festivities included a dumpling wrapping contest, festivities hosted by Asian and Asian-American students on campus, and a Lunar New Year-themed Open House hosted by Mr. and Ms. Hooper. 

   

  As generative as these observances felt, the month ended with an accustomed practice of mourning and respect as students traveled to the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara to hear from a survivor of the Holocaust and received a docent-led tour of Portraits of Survival in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Additionally, community processing spaces were offered in the wake of both the Monterrey Park and Half Moon Bay tragedies, and again upon the release of footage and subsequent uprisings related to the murder of Tyre Nichols. While spaces of deep community care are a foundation of the practice of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, this does not mean it is easy. I leave you with words that inform our practice offered by Amanda Gorman in The Hill We Climb: “Even as we grieved, we grew.”

   

  In Community, 

  Sepideah and Christian

• Dispatches from DEI - February 2023

  A Monthly Message from Sepideah Mohsenian-Rahman, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Christian Garris, Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

  
  Wrapping up the winter term has brought to Thacher the magic of snow flurries, but the warmth on campus is palpable in moments of community.

   

  Black History Month included a collaboration between the Horse Department, Office of the Head of School, Anacapa Program, and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in welcoming Californio-style vaquero Pete Taylor and polo star Dale Johnson for a Celebration of Black Cowboys in the West and three days of interactive programing in the arena, trails, and classroom. Black Student Union, led by Faith Sonime, Tristan Oriol, Ms. Walker, and Dr. Greene, offered countless opportunities for celebration and education with highlights including a BSU alumni panel, a joint BSU gathering with students from Besant Hill School to roller skate, in addition to activating Open House with food catered by a local Black-owned restaurant and a screening of The Princess and the Frog.

   

  In collaboration with the William H. Orrick Lecture Series and History Department, Academy Award-winning filmmaker, director, screenwriter, and producer Freida Lee Mock visited campus for a screening of her film Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words, followed by visits to History classes, and a filmmaking workshop. Freida is the daughter of renowned Thacher executive chef Lee Quong and a parent of a Thacher alum.

   

  The First-In affinity group gathered inaugural members to speak with 12th and 11th graders to share their insight and advice about the college search and application process.

   

  To wrap up the month we sent off Anacapa Scholar and alum Rhea Wong with closing convocation remarks during community dinner, celebrated Purim with hamentashen and gragger crafting during Open House, and hosted an interfaith gathering of SWANASA students (includes diasporas from as far west as Morocco and as far East as India—Southwest Asian, North African, and South Asian).

   

  Wishing you a joyful time with students home with you during break! 

   

  Sepideah and Christian