What Do Diversity and Inclusion Mean in 2021?

Learning, Practicing and Living with Diversity and Inclusion

On February 18 at 7 pm, The Hotchkiss School’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion Yassine Talhaoui will be joined by Meg Allen, Director of Inclusion and Equity Education at Salisbury for a program entitled, “Building Diversity and Inclusion Amidst our Differences and Commonalities”.  Allen and Talhaoui will talk about how communities must foster the essential values of equity and inclusion to prepare young people for an increasingly complex world.  This includes teaching strategies to divest communities of racism, marginalization and bigotry and developing the skills and tools to utilize differences in ways that enable everyone to work together to cultivate better understanding, more acceptance, and attitudes of inclusion.

In 2020, Hotchkiss created The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the Board of Trustees which has been working on policies and practices to create an anti-racist environment, supported by workshops, conferences, community meetings, renowned speakers and the creation of an anonymous bias-incident reporting form for teachers and students.  Salisbury School’s website states, “ by explicitly and implicitly teaching our core values of empathy, humility and respect, Salisbury students come to learn that, in fact, everyone is their brother.”  Ms. Allen holds a master’s degree in special education, is an instructor in the Rudd Center for Learning and Academic Growth and serves as the faculty advisor for the Big Brother program with Salisbury Central School.  Mr. Talhaoui, M.A. grew up in Germany and is the Associate Director of Admission at Hotchkiss; prior to Hotchkiss, he was the director of equity and social justice and a foreign language teacher at the Watkinson School in Hartford, CT.

Please register below for the Zoom link.