Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice

At State College Friends School, we strive to create a welcoming and inclusive community, which ensures that all students, faculty, staff, and community members are seen and heard; which nurtures self-reflection; and which affirms all identities. We commit to creating and maintaining an actively anti-racist, anti-bias school environment that enables students and families of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, gender identities, gender expressions, sexual orientations, and socio-economic backgrounds to become their most empowered and authentic selves.

 Affirming these identities is foundational to establishing all students’ sense of belonging–a necessity for a vigorous learning environment. Furthermore, developing empathy and respect for others enables students to become agents of change, to support voices that are often ignored, and to work for equity and justice in our communities and in the larger world. 

 Our Quaker testimonies of community, equity, peace, and stewardship call all members of our community to learn about diversity and our collective history of inequity, as well as to dismantle systems of injustice in order to replace them with peaceful and equitable practices. As educators, we seek to provide a culturally responsive curriculum at all developmental levels and to address situations of implicit and explicit bias that occur within our community. We do so by intentionally designing and reevaluating our curriculum, facilitating honest and emotionally responsible conversations, and conducting respectful community outreach. We strive to create an environment in which all members of the community are open to self-examination, recognizing that the discomfort accompanying this work pales in comparison to the tangible injustices of our past and present society. It is crucial that we all work together to actively participate in the creation of a more just world.