by JEANIE CHUA
Instead of a typical school day, next Wednesday will mark Chadwick’s fourth-annual Social Justice Day, arranged by members of the Student Diversity Council. This year’s theme is “Words Matter: Empower, Elevate, Educate.”
Chadwick’s Core Values of compassion, fairness, honesty, respect and responsibility, and its motto–“Think. Do. Lead.”–are at the heart of Social Justice Day, turning ideas into action.
This day allows students to present a social justice topic that they are passionate about, and share it with the Chadwick community. Topics can range from environmental justice to racial equality.
For those not presenting, this campus-wide day is important for students to consider perspectives outside their own, and embrace empathy for those who may not share the same life experiences.
“In keeping with our Core Values, we want people to think more about how do we build empathy,” said Dr. John Aden, Chadwick’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “How do we help students and faculty think about situations that they don’t experience themselves, but that other people are going through? And how can we be helpful to those people in the human family?”
From the first Social Justice Day at Chadwick in 2021 via Zoom to now, there have been many developments to improve the effectiveness and enjoyment of this day. As students themselves, the Student Diversity Council has taken extensive measures to gather input from students to make positive changes to this year’s event.
After talking to students and sharing feedback with the Equity Team, alterations adopted include having three workshops instead of four to provide a more extensive reflecting space, shortening the opening ceremony, and raising more awareness to the norms of this day.
Social justice speaks to the principle that everyone deserves to be treated equally. Because social justice encompasses so many topics, students always have a large variety of issues to present or workshops to attend every year.
“With all of the new people who are signing up and joining, we are getting a lot of new, interesting and diverse topics that people are covering,” said senior Caleb Kim, co-chair of the Student Diversity Council. “There are these very niche topics that we tend to overlook, so Social Justice Day is a great way to have an opportunity to shine light on those topics.”
One of the workshops this year is “M-Asian-Stream” by seniors Jessica Piamonte and Sienna Chan and juniors Max Lee and Nathan Castro, who are the leaders of the Asian American Student Assn. This seminar will discuss the importance of representation in mainstream media, along with celebrating the achievements of Asian Americans.
“Growing up, I had a lot of trouble with embracing my identity,” Chan said. “When the movie Crazy Rich Asians came out, seeing Singapore represented in such a positive light on the big screen helped me realize how cool it was that my family came from there.”
Similarly, Latinos Unidos is hosting a workshop on the anti-immigrant rhetoric that many Latinx face, and how that stigma impacts the Latinx community.
Junior Dominick Quintero, when asked the importance of this presentation to him, said: “I want for my friends and family to be judged on their character and not by what is said about their community in the media.”
Another affinity group presenting is the Black Student Union/Black Girl Magic. They will host a panel that allows students to ask questions about the Black student experience at Chadwick.
Often, students at Chadwick can find themselves trapped in a “Chadwick bubble.” Popping that bubble for students to expand their perspectives is exactly what Social Justice Day does, and the reason why this special day is important.
“Chadwick as a whole always pushes ‘Think. Do. Lead.,’ and Social Justice Day is one of those opportunities to do just that,” Piamonte says. “It’s about an aspect of life that can make people uncomfortable, and being uncomfortable is good for you. It is needed and necessary for your overall being.”
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