Introducing Upper School Identity Groups!

The adolescent years are punctuated by persistent questions about identity. Who am I? How am I unique? To what groups do I belong? To what groups do I not belong? And how do my memberships, or lack thereof, shape my experience of myself, of others, and of the world? These questions are as driven by human nature as they are shaped by the particular societies that form us.

Here, in the United States, where race, gender, and sexual orientation are so prominent, young people are wrestling, at increasingly earlier stages of life, with how those forces shape them. They wonder about the similarities and differences that exist between them and others. Already they may see that memberships in some groups afford them certain societal advantages, while memberships in other groups provide the exact opposite. Often young people search for spaces for open and honest conversations about these realities, in the spirit of better understanding themselves and others.

Upper School students at Friends are no different. Many of them have longed for support groups where they can speak frankly about their identities and shared experiences. This longing has found particularly clear expression among students from underrepresented backgrounds. Their desire for specific spaces of support coheres with the School’s strategic plan goals, which promise to create support structures that enable all of our students, and specifically those from underrepresented backgrounds, to thrive in the school community.

For this reason, and after careful research and planning by a group of faculty/staff led by Jason Craige Harris, Director of Diversity and Inclusion, the School will pilot this fall an identity group program for Upper Schoolers. The program will expand the list of support groups the School already offers like Banana Splits, Candy Apples, and Bereavement. Identity groups will include Spectrum (for LGBTQ+ students), SOC (for students of color), and Alliance (for white students who want to explore healthy white racial identity development).

Participation in the identity group program is optional, though participating students will be asked to commit to at least one group for the academic year. Each group will convene once a month over lunch and will be facilitated by a faculty/staff member. Members of all identity groups will meet together periodically for an “Identity Inclusion” session to share with each other reflections and takeaways from their groups.

“The identity group program is not meant to replace all of the rich identity, diversity, and inclusion programming that we already do. Rather, it’s meant to complement that work,” said Jason. “The goal of the program is twofold: diversity and inclusion. We want to honor diversity and nurture the differences in our midst. Therefore, we have created a variety of groups for conversation and reflection on specific identities that students have highlighted repeatedly.”

He went on to say, “And we want to honor the inclusion imperative. There should be enough identity group choices so that every Upper Schooler has the option of joining a group that is relevant to them. Every Upper Schooler will be able to attend the groups with which they self-identity. Since we all have multiple identities, groups will not meet at the same time, so students won’t have to choose between groups that matter to them. Our periodical ‘Identity Inclusion’ meetings for all identity group members will be crucial to maintaining the value we place on unity and conversations across lines of difference. Lastly, we know that more groups may be necessary at some point, and, in the spirit of inclusion and meeting the needs of our diverse community, we are open to expanding.”

Faculty/staff facilitators will meet regularly with Harris to plan identity group meetings. They will also collect student feedback and evaluate the program.