Equity and
Inclusion

Our equity and inclusion (E&I) program inspires us to build a beloved community that is courageous, self-reflective, and intentional in its pursuit of social justice, equity, and inclusion.

The program builds upon Nueva’s focus on both social-emotional learning and design thinking by fostering empathy, encouraging innovative solutions, and promoting critical thinking skills. All three programs are rooted in a belief that empathy is a crucial mindset and that reflection and action are two sides of the same coin.

Our Equity and Inclusion program is committed to:

Our Equity and Inclusion program is committed to:

Creating an inclusive culture where all people are welcomed, valued, empowered, and heard
Challenging systemic inequity and oppression by practicing empathy, understanding privilege, transforming conflict, and exploring creative solutions
Fostering a sense of hope, an impetus to act, and a firm belief that standing up for social justice and equity is both the responsible and just thing to do

IN THIS SECTION

In This Section

Our Values

We believe that equity and inclusion are fundamental parts of an enriching educational experience and that all students benefit from learning to value, engage with, and understand difference. We celebrate our community’s multiple and intersectional identities, and welcome a diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. Accordingly, we believe our students will be equipped to become engaged citizens in our democracy and to participate and communicate effectively in our interdependent global community.

Finally, we believe that transformation is the ultimate aim of social justice and of education. In both arenas, the work often doesn’t reap immediate rewards and requires a profound faith in others. We know that our work at Nueva will be simultaneously rewarding and deeply challenging. Nevertheless, we believe that we are beholden to our students to build a better world. We do so by fostering a beloved community that openly acknowledges the ways in which all institutions, schools included, perpetuate inequality; and, in so doing, confronts this truth with the willingness and conviction to construct an entirely different system and world.

Enacting Our Values

We are committed to enacting our values in a myriad of ways, understanding that people come to the work of equity and inclusion from many different backgrounds, experiences, and comfort levels. Part of our work is to help move students, faculty, staff, and community members forward in their understanding and support of issues of equity and inclusion. To that end, we offer:

a range of educational and professional development opportunities
a support program for historically underrepresented students
a number of other related programming and events

Please read below for more details on our various offerings and efforts.

Curriculum

Divisional Curricular Focus

We are committed to ensuring that the themes and ideas of social justice and equity are present throughout our PreK–12 curriculum. We believe these ideas must be embedded authentically across divisions and disciplines to foster in-depth, self-reflective, and community-oriented conversations and learning. Experience examples of the ways this manifests in our lower school, middle school, and upper school curricula.

Social-emotional Learning

Our social-emotional learning curriculum includes units on discrimination, unconscious bias, and privilege. Students complete projects that include investigating their own identities and reflecting on the privilege they hold.

Student Services and Support

Thrive Program

The effort to diversify our community continues to be a key priority. Diversity—socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, gender, and religious, among others—enriches our school and deepens our understanding of each other as human beings. To that end, the school seeks to provide support for all students and families as they join our community. The Thrive Program specifically supports historically underrepresented students and families within the independent school community. Its aim is to increase the diversity of our community by making programmatic elements more easily accessible to families, clearly defining areas of support and onboarding, providing advocacy and mentoring to Thrive students, and supporting students and families to make stronger connections within the community. Learn more about the Thrive program.

Student Programming

Throughout the year, we offer assemblies and school-wide events that promote empathy, perspective-taking, and thoughtful engagement with the issues of social justice, equity, and inclusion. Every year, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a full day of programming at the Upper School—themes have encompassed intersectionality, solidarity, and faith. Across all divisions, we host assemblies that speak to diverse topics such as environmental justice, Pride Month, Black History Month, and Asian American History Month. We also work with student affinity groups to hold authentic cultural celebrations for the entire school community.

Affinity Groups

Affinity groups in all three divisions are spaces for community members to discuss a shared identity, celebrate cultural events, and build community. These groups offer safe spaces for minoritized groups to share experiences and create a sense of pride around their identity. By having these spaces for community members to come together, we hope to help minoritized groups feel visible and have a platform to advocate for themselves.

We offer student and family affinity groups; family affinity groups are run through the Nueva Parents’ Association, while student affinity groups are led by students and advised by faculty members. Example affinity groups include Koreans At Nueva, Jewish Affinity Group, Black Student Union, South Asian Affinity Group, Chinese Affinity Group, Japanese Affinity Group, Latine Affinity Group, Neurodiversity Affinity Group, and Queer Student Union.

Professional Development

External and Internal Speakers

Teachers are the backbone of the school. For any significant change to happen in the realm of equity and inclusion, teachers must be on board and prepared to engage with students around these issues. Accordingly, we offer relevant professional development workshops. Topics include cultural competency, understanding gender, engaging in difficult conversations, talking to kids about race, racial identity development, and more. Taught by our Social Justice, Equity & Inclusion team, we also feature outside speakers such as Derrick Gay and Gender Spectrum.

Conferences

Our teachers are encouraged to attend conferences and workshops related to equity and inclusion. We send a cohort of faculty and students every year to the People of Color Conference, allowing our teachers a chance to connect, learn, and engage with other teachers invested in this kind of work. Teachers also attend the Creating Balance in an Unjust World STEM Conference, the Teachers for Social Justice Conference, and the Othering & Belonging Conference.

Equity & Inclusion Institute

The Equity and Inclusion Institute is a supportive and brave space for educators that provides 1) foundational knowledge around issues of social justice and equity that will inform their teaching practice, 2) concrete strategies and tools for implementing a social justice educational model within their classroom and pedagogy, and 3) a learning space for educators to explore their own identities, biases, and processes in this realm.

Institute goals are to promote personal and pedagogical growth, encourage innovative approaches to implementing equity-minded education, and embolden educators to seek discomfort and to disrupt the status quo in the service of creating transformational change.

Learn More

Community Development

Parent Education Workshops

We offer a parent education workshop series called “Common Ground” to support parents in navigating difficult conversations and cultivating their relationships with their children. The workshops provide concrete strategies and ideas for approaching often charged topics in developmentally appropriate ways. We also host parent sessions (both in-person and online) ranging from "Learning About Gender" to "Let's Talk About Digital Wellness".

E&I News

Meet the E&I Team

Shawn Taylor

he/him
Director of Equity and Inclusion
sdtaylor@nuevaschool.org

B Garcia

Lower School Equity & Inclusion and Thrive Coordinator
bgarcia@nuevaschool.org

Shelby Divan

she/her
Middle School Equity & Inclusion and Thrive Coordinator, and SEL Associate Teacher
sdivan@nuevaschool.org

Steven Mathis

he/him
Upper School Equity & Inclusion and Thrive Coordinator
smathis@nuevaschool.org

The Nueva School partners with People of Color in Independent Schools (POCIS), Student Mentoring and Resource Team Program (SMART), Peninsula Bridge, and A Better Chance.

bell hooks
American author, feminist, and social activist

"Learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom with all its limitations remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom."