Jill Anthony has a unique vantage point on the school year from the newly-established role of Director of Equity and Inclusion. With a mission that includes creating new ways to build community, Jill’s first year at Fay also saw the return of many of Fay’s beloved community traditions, including Taste of Nations and the Color Competition.

 

With new opportunities to connect and the return of cherished community events, it was a year of renewed energy and growth within the Fay community. “So many people haven’t experienced these events that they’re new for all of us,” says Jill. “It’s been great to see how excited everyone is for these opportunities for celebration and connection!”

 

Jill’s first year has been extraordinarily busy. She took on the advisory role for Fay’s monthly Community Connections group, a student-led, faculty-advised workshop group whose goal is to encourage awareness and respect for differences within the community. She also advises the Student of Color group and the Q&A Club, which focuses on issues around gender and sexuality. For Fay families, Jill started Parent Community Connections, a community- building discussion group open to all parents and guardians to facilitate dialogue and engagement and celebrate the multifaceted diversity of Fay. Jill also teaches two sections of Wellness in each division and lives on campus as a faculty member in Fay’s residential life program.

 

Jill’s central area of focus this year has been learning about the community and how she can be helpful. She has also worked hard to create spaces where people feel comfortable sharing their stories and aspects of their identity through special extended Upper School Morning Meeting events and with faculty and staff in their Once a Month Monday professional development meetings. However, she quickly notes how much great work was already happening at Fay when she arrived. “I didn’t show up, and suddenly we started having these conversations. Good things were already happening here, and what I have been trying to do is make conversations around identity and inclusion the norm,” says Jill. “This is what we do now, and it’s happening in class, in department meetings, and in faculty conversations. We’re making this work more mission-aligned and interwoven into what Fay is and does. It doesn’t take the place of learning math; it’s just part of everything we do.”

 

While the work of nurturing conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion can be challenging, the benefits to the community are enormous, particularly for students. “They learn what it means or could look like to feel comfortable sharing of themselves, and they feel less alone when they hear other peoples’ stories,” she says. Upper School students have attended various workshops and conferences this year both locally and nationally. Jill notes that one student in particular was struck by a transformative experience at the Asian American Footsteps Conference, which took place virtually this year. “The joy that the student felt being at the conference, and her excitement to bring back that celebration of her identity was so inspiring,” says Jill. It is so important that students have the opportunity to celebrate each other and themselves beyond just holidays.”

 

For that reason, Jill was particularly excited by Fay’s Taste of Nations. The all- school celebration of food and culture, where students and families prepare food from their home countries for the community, was Jill’s favorite event. “I loved seeing everyone coming together and celebrating one another, and food is such a great way to do that. The students were so excited to cook and share their own cultures!”