Middle School Diversity Conference

Last week 16 students, grades 6 through 8, and 4 teachers went to the Middle School Diversity Conference, hosted by East Ed. Over 400 other middle school students attended the event, hailing from private, public, and parochial schools in the Metro area and from as far as Philadelphia and North Carolina. The topic of the conference was: “Searching for Inclusion: Exploring how to be your own person, fit in with a group, and feel safe with the people you are around.” 

After the conference, Sheridan students took time to reflect. Students were surprised by how many people were at the conference, how willing everyone was to share, and how many experiences were shared across middle schools. All of the students could relate to feeling excluded in some way, whether it was unintentional or because of their clothes or socio-economic background. The conference participants want to help all Sheridan students to feel included by using simple tools learned at the conference. Moving forward the students want to be aware of judgments, stereotypes and first impressions, to try to include more people, to see what we have in common with others, and to do something rather than be a bystander.