![BUSY SEASON Christy Loewen, pictured left, and Eric Gajar, pictured right, read an application for the next year. “A lot of people ask, what does it take to be admitted?” said Gajar. “We are first and foremost a college prep school, so we want people who can handle that, but [who] also are good citizens to have as a part of the community.”](https://greenhillsalcove.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image.jpg)
![BE OUR GUEST Greg Huntoon performed as Gaston in the Burns Park Players’ community production of “Beauty and the Beast,” in 2023. “[When] you are somewhere else in the world, and [someone] says, ‘Oh my gosh you were Gaston,’ It's funny,” said Greg.](https://greenhillsalcove.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-11.10.29-AM.png)
This year, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) has expanded its efforts through a series of new workshops designed to help both students and faculty explore topics of identity and community, and also to spread awareness.
“We’re starting with our middle school workshops—nine sessions total from sixth to eighth, each one building to the next,” said Nadine Hall, director of the ODEI. “They cover everything from personal boundaries to identity, disability, gender pronouns, and social action—all age-appropriate.”
ODEI highlights that there has already been a series of diversity workshops for middle schoolers each year, focusing on empathy, community, and inclusion, since 2008, and was recently brought back. By the time they finish eighth grade, they’ve completed nine sessions centered around these topics.
“I think early on, we found that middle school developmentally is a time where students are really learning how to be in community with each other in positive ways,” said Kelly Williams, associate director of the ODEI. “They’re starting to think differently about their own friendships and group dynamics and identities at the same time. So we started those workshops in order to get them a strong foundation and baseline for being empathetic and compassionate to one another and accepting of differences.”
With such a foundation for middle school, transitioning into the upper school was a natural next step. Following recommendations from the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS), the DEI office decided to expand programming into the upper school. This year, Williams and Hall introduced two workshops for high schoolers, one each semester. The first, scheduled for October or early November, will explore gender roles on social media. The second, planned for the spring semester, will focus on racial and ethnic identity online.
“Our upper school students have a lot of interests and questions that come up naturally,” said Williams. “We didn’t want to push these topics on them—it’s really because students have been coming to us asking about it.”
Middle and upper school workshops differ in focus. While middle school sessions emphasize self-awareness and empathy within the school community, upper school discussions encourage students to examine the broader social aspects they encounter online and in the media.
“We’re hearing from students and families that young people are seeing so much online and not always getting a chance to process it,” said Barbara Rocci, ODEI assistant. “We wanted to create space for students to talk with each other and with an adult about how what they see online affects how they think about identity and inclusion.”
Beyond student workshops, the DEI office continues to offer SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), a national professional development program with over 40 years of history for teachers and faculty. The program offers teachers a chance to reflect on issues of identity, race, and gender in education and discuss how to best support students.
“This is our second year running SEED,” said Williams. “It’s an additional way for teachers to take a closer look at the same issues our students are facing and think about how to approach them with empathy and understanding.”
Ultimately, the new programs aim to make diversity and inclusion a shared conversation across the entire school community, both students and faculty alike.
“I’m really excited about creating these new additions,” said Hall. “For both students and teachers, it’s about learning, talking, and reflecting together.”
These workshops aren’t just a new initiative, but also a step toward encouraging a new outlook on identity, empathy, and how students and faculty engage with the world around them through everyday conversations.
