Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Justice

Painted rocks with inspirational words and phrases on them.

Our Commitment—The Saints Promise

The Canterbury community pledges to build and sustain a diverse, equitable, inclusive, safe, and just community that is founded upon, inspired by, and held accountable to our Five Values.

"To be sure, it is Canterbury’s values and infrastructure that create the opportunities for us to teach and challenge our students to think more broadly, take care of one another more deeply, and work at playing a true role in social justice more proactively, personally, and genuinely. It is these very values and infrastructure that welcomed student voices in recent years, voices that identified programming and 'spaces' our students needed for conversation, affirmation, and action."

HEAD OF SCHOOL
RACHEL STONE P ’23, ’24
June 2020

Honesty

Building character and courage to stay true to ourselves and others.

We pledge to:

Create both physical and emotional space for difficult conversations and acknowledge that the first step is often learning to be comfortable with topics we find uncomfortable
Acknowledge and address our individual biases

Respect

Learning each other’s stories and treating all with dignity.

We pledge to:

Work to know one another as individuals and acknowledge/empower the personal identities we each choose to share, including: one’s name, story, passions, native language, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual identity, cultural heritage, ability, and faith tradition
Stand for equity and justice and stand actively against inequity and injustice
Be open to new ideas and perspectives
Celebrate accomplishments and encourage continued growth

Compassion

Being fully and humbly present so that we may empathize with others.

We pledge to:

Create opportunities to hear the voices and listen to the opinions of one another
Learn and grow from our mistakes

Spirituality

Growing in faith through reflection and service.

We pledge to:

Encourage the development of ethical leadership
Inspire a journey of spirituality and service grounded by one’s faith background

Self-Reliance

Developing strength and independence to become intellectual and ethical leaders in a complex world.

We pledge to:

Hold ourselves and one another accountable as contributing, present, involved members of the Saints community, always working for the good of one another and our School
Help prepare our students for the breadth and depth of diversity they will encounter beyond our hilltop, and build personal connections that they can carry forward as alumni

DEIJ Initiatives at Canterbury

D'Amour Center for Faith, Service & Justice

Social Justice Series

The D’Amour Center for Faith, Service & Justice partners with multiple student groups for Canterbury’s annual Social Justice Series, which creates spaces for students to deepen their knowledge and engage in conversations around issues that are critical to building a more fair, just, and equitable world. The series kicks off each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day with service opportunities supporting local organizations and continues weekly with sessions of vital, topical programming. Read more...

Saints on the Hill

Student Affinity Groups/Education Clubs

Canterbury offers a variety of clubs and student groups focused on increasing awareness, understanding, and cultural appreciation. Following is a list of current clubs and student groups:

Women of Canterbury: Formed in 1992; Canterbury's longest-running affinity group
CDIC (Canterbury Diversity and Inclusion Club): Formed in 2016 by students; this group later transitioned to AHANA (see below)
Interfaith Council: Formed in 2017
AHANA (students of African/Hispanic/Asian/Native American heritage): Formed in 2019 by and for students of color
GSA (Gender & Sexuality Alliance): Formed in 2019 by students
JSA (Jewish Student Association): Formed in 2021 by students

Student Leadership Training

2022: Student Leadership Training on Diversity, including sessions on the SCARF Model (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness) and Identities and Biases.
2021: Training centered on putting The Saints Promise into action in our community, a set of guiding principles inspired and shaped by the nine student Community DEI Committee members and designed to serve as a roadmap for growth and accountability for the entire Canterbury community.
2020: Mirroring the faculty DEI training that took place in August 2020, Student Leaders received training that was grounded in the principles of diversity, inclusion and servant leadership.
2018 & 2019: Leadership Training grew from a one-day program to a three-day retreat model. Student Leaders brainstorm and determine each year’s community theme (2019-20: Sense of Belonging).
2017: Transition from Student Body President to Sixth Form Council in order to broaden the representation of seniors impacting the leadership and direction of the school.
Ongoing training and feedback for our Proctors (dorm leaders), Sixth Form Council (student government), Sacristans and Interfaith Council (spiritual leaders), and International Student Ambassadors.
Consistent communication and collaboration between the adult leaders and students in these groups focus heavily on school culture. The intention is to have students focus on inclusion while also opening up lines of communication between students and faculty.

Committees & Forums

COMMITTEES

Faculty DEI Committee: Original committee of faculty and administrators formed in 2019 and expanded in 2020 to build the School’s DEI strategic roadmap.
Community DEI Committee: Formed during summer 2020 as an expansion of the inaugural faculty committee, this Committee included various intersecting community roles to ensure broad representation and to sustain its work and function for years to come.

2020-21 Committee included:
AHANA (African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American students) Faculty Advisor
Chief Advancement Officer
Dean of Faculty
Dean of Students
Director of the D'Amour Center for Faith, Service & Justice
Director of Curriculum
Director of Dining Services
Founder of Saints on the Hill and founding member of AHANA
Head of School
Member of Board of Trustees
Member of Society of Alumni Executive Committee
President of Board of Trustees

Nine Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Form students passionately joined the Community DEI Committee in the 2020-21 school year. Initial work centered on four key areas of a Needs Assessment and Action Plan framework (Academic Curriculum, Campus Audit, Student Experience, Recruitment/Retention).

The Community DEI Committee developed The Saints Promise (see top of page), a set of guiding principles inspired and shaped by the nine student members and designed to serve as a roadmap for growth and accountability for the entire Canterbury community.

DEIJ Council: As the next evolution of our collaborative community work, the DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice) Council was formed in the 2021-22 school year. An outgrowth of strong student interest in the Community DEI Commitee, membership on the DEIJ Council is a student leadership position, for which students apply and interview each year. Currently comprised of 13 committed students spanning all Forms, student life faculty, and faculty advisors to AHANA, GSA, and other student affinity spaces. They have organized into four subcommittees: Current Events/Response, Amplifying Voices, Student Leadership Expectations, and Social Justice Series. A Faculty/Staff DEI Committee works in tandem with the DEIJ Council to support its work and initiatives, with much of the same representation that was selected for the Community DEI Committee:

Assistant Head of School for Student Life
Chief Advancement Officer
Director of Campus Ministry
Director of Curriculum
Director of the D'Amour Center for Faith, Service & Justice
Director of Dining Services
Form Dean
Head of School

FORUMS

Faculty, staff, and students engaged in anti-racism forums throughout the summer of 2020 (bi-weekly each for students and for faculty/staff).
In the fall of 2020, students and faculty met in small groups on five Saturdays to discuss topics ranging from community norms and Canterbury’s commitment to providing each student with a sense of belonging to the presidential election and a viewing of The Social Dilemma.

Conferences, Professional Development, & Hiring

Conferences

Attended by Faculty:

2022, 2021, 2020, & 2019: National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) People of Color Conference (PoCC)

Attended by Students:

2022, 2019, & 2018: National Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC )
2021 & 2020: Online SDLC
2019 & 2018: Connecticut SDLC

Professional Development

On-Campus:

In August 2022, all faculty viewed a presentation on Diversity, including sessions on the SCARF Model (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness) and Identities and Biases.
In spring 2022, all faculty were invited to listen to a NAIS New View EDU podcast: Schools for Growing Citizens. A key takeaway discussion session was then facilitated by faculty members of the current DEIJ Council.
DEI-focused professional development for all faculty took place in August 2020 prior to the start of the 2020-21 school year, consisting of a five-day program co-facilitated by 12 faculty members trained by DEI consultant Margenett Moore-Roberts.
The work of this 12-member faculty team has continued as they lead the work of our DEI Faculty Pods and continue their partnership with Ms. Moore-Roberts, including participation in the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).
In June 2020, Duchess Harris, J.D., Ph.D. '87 joined our Academic Committee in creating frameworks to ensure the diversity of voices within Canterbury's curriculum, the historical accuracy of its courses, and the long-term planning required to sustain this work. A professor of political science and American studies at Macalaster College (MN), Duchess is an academic, author, and legal scholar whose books on race and Black feminism have received widespread acclaim.

Off-Campus:

Administrators and faculty attended conferences/sessions centered on DEI training:

CAIS Conference on Governance: September 2021
Session topics included:
Truth, Justice, and the Governance Way
Language Matters
Understanding DEIJB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Belonging)
How Leaders of Color Impact Community Change
CAIS Conference on Anti-Bias Teaching: Summer 2021

HIRING

Participated in National Employment Minority Network (NEMNET) Diversity Recruitment Career Fairs: 2020, 2021
Attended NEMNET Diversity Faculty Recruitment Training: November 2021
Attended Carney Sandoe & Associates FORUM/Diversity hiring conference and professional development symposium: 2021, 2022

Curriculum Inclusion

In recent years, Canterbury has reviewed and updated its curricula to provide a broad range of historical and cultural experiences and to help students learn to appreciate different perspectives and embrace diversity in a socially responsible way.

Below is a partial list of these experiences reflected in current course offerings.

Honors Identity and Culture (Fifth/Sixth Form English Elective)

Syracuse University Project Advance: Gender and Literary Texts (Fifth/Sixth Form English Elective)

Holocaust (Fifth/Sixth Form History & Social Sciences Elective)

Modern Middle East (Fifth/Sixth Form History & Social Sciences Elective)

Modern Times (Fifth/Sixth Form History & Social Sciences Elective)

Revolutions and Revolutionaries (Fifth/Sixth Form History & Social Sciences Elective)

Religions of the World (Theology Minor Course)

Theology III: Introduction to Morality (Theology Minor Course)

Theology IV: Social Justice and the Common Good (Theology Minor Course)

Climate Survey & Exit Interviews

Diversity within Canterbury encompasses race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, religion, intellectual and physical ability, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, family structure, language, and geographic place of origin.