Creating a Multicultural Community at Lawrenceville School  
January 7, 2010 at William Penn Charter School

      In an evening workshop co-sponsored by the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools, about 100 local educators attended a presentation by three staff members of the Lawrenceville School's Multicultural Affairs  office. Led by Samuel Washington, Director of Multicultural Affairs at the school, the workshop explored the successes and challenges that the school has faced in becoming a more diverse community. Washington was joined by Wilburn Williams, Assistant Director of Multicultural Affairs for Academics and Leucretia Shaw, Assistant Director of Multicultural Affairs for Student Life.
      Washington, an alum of the school,  pointed out that Lawrenceville was founded in 1810. Its long history and rich tradition are “a great asset but also a burden” when it comes to promoting change. He said that head of school Elizabeth Duffy has made diversity a priority since arriving on the campus in 2003. He laid out a helpful progression of steps that a school has to go through in its "journey" towards diversity. A school has to start with diversity, confronting the question of “who are we?” It has to ask questions like "Who leads? Who cleans up? Who gets to teach?" A diverse school can then begin creating a multicultural community. Only then can it begin to move towards "equity and justice, where all have a sense of empowerment and ownership." To be successful in this process, a school and its leadership need to be clear about what a diverse and multicultural community would look like.
      Wilburn Williams discussed the difficult decisions that have to be made about curriculum. For example, do you design a series of specialized courses like Great Jewish Books or Hinduism, which are offered at Lawrenceville, or do you take an integrated approach across all departments? You may run into resistance and lack of “buy in” from certain departments and that’s where the leadership needs to exert pressure and offer guidance. Lawrenceville has done a combination of specialized courses while also requiring all departments to demonstrate how they are integrating diversity into the curriculum. Williams said that "an awareness of the complexity of the world should be imbedded in the curriculum." Finally, Leucretia Shaw, also a school alum, summarized the many ways that the school facilitates diversity in the student body, from an array of clubs like the Catholic Students Club and Latinos Unidos, to study abroad opportunities. The workshop was an interesting window into one school's path towards what they described as "the peaceable kingdom."

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                       Presenters Shaw, Williams and Washington make their opening remarks