Kasey

My name is Kasey and I am a senior in High School. I am looking forward to graduation soon and to pursing my college career where I plan to undertake a dual degree in French and International Relations. I want to talk with you today about the importance of schools providing students with rich opportunities for growth in diversity and inclusion through curriculum pathways as well as through supporting members of the school community to build relationships and connections through getting  to know one another .

Language is my passion. I have devoted countless hours of my life to the language programs in my Public School system.  I am passionate about this because my community is not all that racially, culturally, or ethnically diverse and studying languages provides me the opportunity to grow and broaden my knowledge of other cultures. Throughout my years in my schools, most of the students who I have attended school with look like me and we share many of the same experiences. I found that through studying languages, I can learn about other people, other cultures, and new perspectives. I feel so passionately about this that last year at our District’s annual budget committee meeting, when budget cuts for language programming were being considered, I along with 15 of my peers, advocated for the future of language programming in my school.

Languages have the power to enrich our everyday lives and create connections between students who may not have shared experiences.   Our school has an ever-growing Portuguese language speaking population and unfortunately, I see those students become isolated and forced into groups due to the language barrier and lack of cultural knowledge. If our school provided the opportunity to take a language class in Portuguese or created opportunities to include more about all student’s culture into the curriculum, we could gain relationships we may not have had before. Providing the opportunities to share connections with students of differing backgrounds will only encourage the growth of diversity in our school population and promote inclusion among peers and also teachers.

Please continue to invest in the Safe and Supportive Schools line item so that all schools can build learning environments that are inclusive of everyone.