"We prepare students to engage in the world that is and to help bring about a world that ought to be."
In Dialogue
In collaboration with CPEJ, the Middle School recently participated in a Global Student Dialogue entitled: Student Leadership and Action around Climate Change and Sustainability. About 100 middle school students from around the world participated along with nine Grade 8 students from Friends, many of whom had participated in similar dialogues last year. Those students included Sebby, Rohan, Marlowe, Skylar, Charlie, Aiden, Georgie, Sadie and Avi, who took a particularly skilled leadership role in the discussion. Students were broken into smaller groups to analyze climate issues and brainstorm projects and actions they could lead in their communities to help combat climate change. They then came together to share their feedback.
Upper Schoolers participated in another dialogue around UN Sustainable Development Goal #5: Gender Equality. There were about 75 students in the session from Canada and across the US, bringing multiple perspectives to the event.
Friends is a Leading Partner School in this student dialogue initiative again this year. GEBG’s Global Student Dialogues provide students the opportunity for intercultural dialogue and connect thousands of students with their peers from schools across North America and more than 25 countries around the world. These dialogues have addressed topics of global significance such as climate change and gender equality, topics related to global current events such as the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and various UN Sustainable Development Goals in order to develop the student intercultural communication and perspective-taking. Students engage in conversations in small groups, sharing their experiences and thoughts on the topic and practicing essential skills related to respectful civil discourse – students report that the two skills they most practice in this program are listening for understanding and listening with empathy. GEBG has developed and hosted this year’s dialogues with the generous support of the E.E. Ford Foundation.
Friends Seminary actively promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in all its programs and operations, including admissions, financial aid, hiring, and all facets of the educational experience. To form a community which strives to reflect the world’s diversity, we do not discriminate on the basis of race or color, religion, nationality, ethnicity, economic background, physical ability, sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation. Friends Seminary is an equal opportunity employer.
Friends Seminary — the oldest continuously operated, coeducational school in NYC — serves college-bound day students in Kindergarten-Grade 12.
