Photo Courtesy of NSHS Athletics
By Gaby Lewis
With divisions at Newton South between grades, race and gender, Patricia Gonzalez, the athletic director at Newton South, and Katani Sumner, the METCO counselor at Newton South, tried to provide students strategies for coming together by taking a diverse group of students to the MIAA’s Inclusion summit at the College of Holy Cross earlier this month.
On January 18th, a group of ten students accompanied by Gonzalez and Sumner attended panels led by representatives from high schools across the states to discuss ways schools can come together as one community. The subject of the panels, seminars and discussions ranged from conversations over race, disabilities, gender, and inclusivity.
As Newton South focuses on building more school spirit and including all students, the summit worked perfectly to provide students better strategies for coming together.
“I decided to attend the summit because our school is working toward the inclusion of all students and understanding that each one can succeed,” Gonzalez said. “My goal was to bring voices of our students to the state forum and to spark in them ideas to bring back to South.”
The goal of Gonzalez matched the goal of students, who looked forward to bring strategies learned from the summit back to Newton South.
“My goal personally as the baseball captain was to get a little more experience about how to be more inclusive to others, and welcome others and how to be a good leader overall,” Brandon Lee, a junior at Newton South said.
By being student leaders, these students can help spread the message of inclusivity learned at the summit throughout the entire school.
Sophomore Larissa Williams went into the summit hoping to learn from the other participating student’s perspectives.
“I wanted to keep an open mind, and listen to what others might say and listen to how other people from different schools relate to our school issues at South,” Williams said.
The various perspectives represented at the event helped South’s students to hear many strategies then choose which one to bring back to Newton South.
Additionally, the students felt as though the variety of panels were successful. Their favorite speakers ranged from Lee’s choice of the athletic director at Northeastern’s discussion about bringing athletes together, to William’s favorite which included a seminar about awareness of our advantages in society and how society places people into categories
“I learned that although we all might be receiving the same opportunities at school academically speaking at Newton South everyone has different advantages and disadvantages,” Williams said. “In the real world, these will set them forward, or even farther behind.”
The summit taught the students different perspective and skills that they can use for the future even when they graduate Newton South.
Therefore, Gonzalez stated that her goals of bringing ideas of inclusivity to Newton South were accomplished.
The students all participated in action plans that spanned various topics, such as how to better the environment at South for gender equity and disable athletes. These action plans focused on using skills they learned from the summit to help solve the problems of inclusion at South cited above.
Lee felt as though the summit provided him with an opportunity to better the Newton South community, and is hoping that the inclusion summit will become a tradition. Gonzalez confirmed that she is hoping to continue the program.
“The students connected with each other and realized that they are not alone, that their needs and voices are important regardless of gender, race or disability. Summits like this one empower them to be part of the change and the solutions,” Gonzalez said.
