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North Haven Invites Other High Schools for Diversity Conference

Students from schools around the state came to North Haven High School on Oct. 27 for Diversity in Action Conference. Some goals of the conference were to design and develop skills to help build a positive school climate and set up networking that is designed to develop action plans for immediate implementation.

The event also featured an introduction for high school teams to “inspirED”, an educational program designed by teens, educators and researchers at Facebook and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

Sarah Bouffard, one of North Haven High School’s Diversity Team presidents, said the conference is a “wonderful thing,” and it was good to see fresh new faces that wanted to be there. She said a topic discussed that day was empathy.

Seth Wallace of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence said the event is unique because it’s run completely by students, and that’s it’s inspiring to see students work with other students on for the event.

Julie McGarry, also with the Yale center, said the event is important because most of the time it’s adults that do the speaking to students, but this is event is students showing other students what they’ve done and how to bring it back to their schools.

Dave Maloney of the Connecticut Association of Schools called the conference a unique opportunity for kids, as they can expand their learning by learning from kids in other schools and communities. He said that’s what makes learning rich.

The North Haven High School’s Diversity Team wanted to thank the school’s administration for use of the library that day. inspirED has recognized this as the first-in-the-nation Youth Engagement and Leadership Lab.