Wellington: Our stories are windows and mirrors

About the video:
In 2020, while social justice movements were taking place across the country, students at The Wellington School wanted to address issues surrounding systemic racism, gender discrimination and harassment at the school. This conversation was in context with the national discourse on the topic with an understanding that our community is not immune to the issues the rest of the country is facing.
In June, as students at schools across the nation created social media sites to share stories, our students created ‘Dear Wellington, an Instagram account to provide a space for students and alumni to post their experiences about racism and gender identity discrimination anonymously. At the same time, offline groups of Black Wellington Alumni shared their own stories with the school.
Before and since the Dear Wellington account was published, the school has put in place or bolstered over 30 courses, trainings and programs on its journey to becoming an anti-racist school.
This video highlights a story of inclusion and belonging. As we have navigate those issues of in our community, it is so important that we leverage Wellington’s values: Be empathetic and Be responsible. Embracing belonging, and teaching and learning in a diverse community matters because it helps students feel safe and supported so they can take on new risks and challenges. We know the most learning and growth will happen while taking on new challenges. When a student knows that even if they have set-backs or failures, they have support - this builds resilience and a sense of unflappable optimism.
Inclusion makes us smarter by building more empathy, by navigating cognitive dissonance while tackling our biases, it improves our critical thinking and problem solving. Developing empathy is a 21st century skill, and has moved from being a “nice to have” to a “must have” for students and professionals navigating new challenges.
We see this as process and a journey, and it is something we will always be working toward. There is no finish line. This video captures some very important steps in that journey.