Diversity Club
Our Mission:
Contribute significantly to the school's climate of acceptance and respect for diversity.
The goals of the group are to:
- Establish awareness by looking at diversity and equity from a variety of perspectives
- Develop leadership skills
- Foster resilience in speaking up against negativity
- Learn the skill of leading discussions on sensitive issues
- Empower students to speak up
- Impact the community at large by creating workshops, programs and advisory activities
Recent Events:
Students previewing picture books before donating to the IAR preschool. They wrote such heartfelt and inspiring messages to dedicate these books from Diversity Club to the Preschoolers. We were invited to come read aloud soon!
To make the school aware of our community and family members with Down Syndrome, Diversity Club created a bulletin board, informational slides, made T-shirts with the SLC students, and had the whole school turn out in blue and yellow!
Past Events 2020-2021
Virtual Meet with FHS Students
Members of the Equity Leadership Group and the Diversity Club met with members of the Social Justice clubs at FHS to find out more about what they do and how we can integrate into those clubs, when we attend FHS.
Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month
We wrote educational slides for morning announcements and created a bulletin board to raise cultural awareness and acceptance.
Autism Awareness Month
Along with writing some morning announcements in celebration of neurodiversity, we created a bulletin board to raise awareness.
Rock the Socks to Support Down Syndrome Awareness
We made announcement that taught our community about Down Syndrome and 3/21. For a week, we raffled off socks to students, faculty and staff to wear on Friday, March 19, our school's 'Rock the Sock' day.
Book Study: This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges
Along with the Equity Leadership Group and students from the CREC program, we read and discussed the recently published book by American activist and hero Ruby Bridges.
Press Release - Ruby Bridges (1).pdfIAR Celebrates Lunar New Year
Celebrating Black History Month
Diversity Club students collected information and videos about/of famous African Americans singing the National Anthem to be played during the announcements during February.
Students Attend a Seminar for BIPOC Youth
The Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research at UMass Amherst is offering this opportunity to students ages 11-14 in January and February. The RHC Lab is a community space for self-identified Black, Indigenous, and middle-school students of color who are interested in exploring racial healing and collective liberation in an inquiry-based, healing-centered way. The purpose of the program is:
- To gather a group of BIPOC youth across the so-called U.S.
- To build collective community based on shared values, common purpose, and accessibility
- To explore and analyze the racialized, gendered, and disabling effects of capitalism through political education with youth
- To explore and embody notions of healing justice and collectivism through problem-posed, dialogical, and experiential learning approaches
- To gather an archive of cultural ethnographies that compile and celebrate our personal and collective resistance practices
Celebrating Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Diversity Club students created a slideshow to be used during morning announcements. All IAR students learned about and discussed some of Dr. King's quotes and how they impact our lives today.
Honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Legacy
Members of the Diversity Club and the Equity Leadership Group wrote essays about MLK's legacy for the State of Connecticut competition.
Attitude for Gratitude
Students asked peers and teachers what they were grateful for. They, then, created a bulletin board (actually, two bulletin boards because the responses of gratitude were overflowing) to share with the IAR community.
US vs. Hate
At Irving A. Robbins Middle School, we have a very active student-run Diversity Club. Our mission is to contribute significantly to the school's climate of acceptance and respect for diversity. We have been using lessons from US vs. Hate and its partners to promote discussions and restorative circles in which students examine where we are as a community and then create learning opportunities and awareness for their peers. This poster was created as part of a series of activities building up to a Diversity Day which we focused on fighting stereotypes. The day started with a homeroom advisory session designed to prepare students for the day’s activities, as well as to get them to think about shifting from prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination, which all create a negative school climate, to tolerance, understanding, acceptance, and inclusion, which make our school a welcoming place for everyone. The focus was on speaking up about stereotypes and hate language. Teaching Tolerance
During lunch periods, club members created some prompts to stimulate thought, self-reflection, and conversations to get to know eachother better. ADL They put the questions on bulletin board paper and created “tablecloths” for an interactive table talk discussion. Also at lunch and then after school for interested parents, students spoke at “booths” they had developed in response to stereotypes at school. Some examples were Asian-Americans, Unified Sports, LGBTQ+, Anxiety Awareness, Atheism, Anti-Muslim Stereotypes, Depression Awareness, Introverts, Gender Stereotypes, Autism Awareness, Body Shaming, Conservatism, Puerto Rico Americans, Community from India, etc. The poster we have submitted to US vs. Hate was used as an “advertisement” in anticipation of the day and featured in the activity at the gender stereotype booth.Teaching Tolerance
Happy Diwali and Deepavali !!!
Celebrating Dwarfism Awareness Month!
Celebrating Down Syndrome Awareness Month!
Pride Month!
Students handed out "Ally" triangles to teachers to hang in their classrooms symbolizing a safe and welcoming space for all.
Socktober!
We collected over 623 pairs of socks to donate!
Happy Dussehra!
Diversity Club member spread awareness and celebrate Hispanic/Latin X Heritage Month.
We educated ourselves and, then, educated our peers. We designed a celebratory bulletin board, hung posters around the school, and made morning announcements.
We also recited the "Pledge of Allegiance" in Spanish for our bilingual peers.
Past Events: 2019-2020
Let's celebrate Asian American - Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Connected Learning 2020
Thursday, April 2nd
We asked the IAR Community to "LIGHT it UP BLUE" for Autism Awareness to show that we celebrate and honor the unique talents and skills of people with autism. This is part of the Diversity Club's focus of ending stereotypes here at IAR by emphasizing a "know your classmates" philosophy.
Poetry Slam in celebration of Black History Month
February 2020. This was a school-wide event, where students research, learned about, practiced, and performed a poem or song lyrics that were written by African Americans. One student even wrote her own poem about her own experiences.
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Members presented at the Parent Forum on February 27, 2020
This was a student-led presentation on IAR's equity and diversity initiatives. Students showcased highlights of their outreach and their connections with FHS and other surrounding communities. Their student leadership has transformed our school climate and culture into a more inclusive one.
Members of the Diversity Club worked with students from period 1 and 7 Team C Social Studies to create a bulletin board about Lunar (Chinese) New Year.
Club members discussed the concept of microaggressions, as well as the hurtful words that they were hearing from their peers. They decided to create a bulletin board about those words/phrases and what they really mean in order to educate their peers, especially those who think that it is funny or "just a joke" to say such things.
In addition to teaching about microaggressions, Diversity Club members want to spread kindness and acceptance around IAR. So, they researched quotes about acceptance and respect from diverse people around the world. They enlisted the help of fellow students who speak other languages, as well as World Language teachers to help translate some of the quotes/statements into many other languages.
