Perfect synergy: two new high school classes were seeds of Foundation grants and a BHS alum provides important insights for our high school students.

One of the dispositions of the Bronxville Promise is to challenge our students to “engage the world around you and make it a better place”. A new social studies yearlong elective class, Global Leadership Seminar, has our students exploring issues of race, gender and identity through the lens of service learning. The class came about as a result of a Foundation grant. In the summer of 2019, two Bronxville High School juniors and a BHS teacher had the opportunity to attend the Student Global Leadership Institute (SGLI) at the Punahou School in Honolulu. Our students joined approximately 70 of their peers, representing over 20 schools and 10 countries to collaborate on examining global issues, formulate solutions, engage the world and develop as leaders, thru participation in workshops, field trips, and seminars to understand the Institute’s 2019 theme of Moral Courage from multiple perspectives.

One of the requirements of the Institute was for participants to share the insights they learned to their high schools and to lead an initiative related to this theme. These seniors, Sabrina Mellinghoff and Chloe Slater, who are among those enrolled in the BHS Global Leadership Seminar, proposed the topic Moral Courage to the class for consideration for a project.

Piece #2 fell into place, last June Matt Behrens, BHS ’14, spoke to our senior class; his words were so meaningful that members of the junior class heard about his presentation. Those in the seminar elective class felt Matt’s views were a good example of moral courage in coming forward to speak about gender bias, gender inequity and sexual harassment.

December 2019 the students organized a High School Assembly with Matt Behrens BHS ’14 as the featured speaker. Matt’s presentation inspired seniors Eileen Marshall & Emma Estes to create a documentary.

Piece #3 falls into place as Eileen & Emma are students in the Bronco TV Class elective. Thanks to a Foundation grant for Bronco TV, (4t​h​ floor Studio B was converted into a TV studio with first rate lighting, cameras, teleprompter and news desk) students now have an opportunity to learn TV and Film production and are inspired to create in a state of the art studio.

Eileen and Emma entered the film documentary into the Girls Impact the World Film Festival (GITWFF). This organization provides the opportunity for high school and college students to submit original short films focused on critical women’s issues such as girls’ education, ending violence against women, poverty & economic independence, and authentic beauty/body image.

Congratulations to BHS Seniors Eileen Marshall and Emma Estes. Their documentary “Be a Man” with Matt Behrens BHS ’14, is up for an award in the “Girls Impact the World” film festival.

Please take a moment to watch the work of these talented students in ​“Be A Man” https://gitwff.org/watch/.

This synergy of opportunities and connections both in the classroom and throughout the broader community in large part owes its origins to the original support of the Foundation.

A grant from the Bronxville School Foundation is funding new elementary school curriculum focused on diversity. “The Diversity Book Club” provides K-5th grade students the opportunity to learn about the ways in which religion, race, gender, and physical abilities affect their lives and the lives of others. The teaching is done through the context of children’s’ picture books. The books are read and discussed in the classroom, then sent home with a guide that includes questions for parents to use as prompts for family discussions.

This curriculum is the result of work done by the Elementary School Diversity Think Tank. The Think Tank began in 2017 and is comprised of 28 teachers with an interest in exploring issues of empathy, equity and culturally responsive teaching. The impetus for starting the Think Tank stemmed, in part, from students who expressed feeling of exclusion. In summer 2018, fifteen teachers attended an on-site training session, Talking About Race in the Classroom. In the summer of 2019, the Foundation funded a grant that sent educators to study at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

The Foundation is funding work with Paul Gorski, of EdChange a leader in scholarship in the field of equity literacy and culturally responsive teaching and learning. Gorski is a world-renowned expert on racial, poverty, and class equality.

Fifth grade teacher Claire Hollocou says “We have made great strides in this work! Because of the ‘Diversity Book Club’ we provide space and time for conversations in which every student feels safe and that they have a voice in the classroom. This promotes multicultural competence, which is a top skill for college and work environments. Teachers feel really empowered when we see the beauty it brings to the students’ experience. I feel it when I walk into my classroom. We have the ground rules set in place to have the conversations that, in the past, would have been uncomfortable. The impact that this is having is huge.”