Just before the winter break, a Community and Equity (C&E) assembly gathered CA students, faculty, and staff to build skills for recognizing credible online sources of information and engaging constructively around topics of global conflict.

On November 15, 2023, Thomas Green, vice president of the Massachusett-Ponkapoag Tribal Council and an Indigenous culture steward and educator, addressed the CA campus community. In this assembly held in the Performing Arts Center in honor of Native American Heritage Month, Green shared the history of the Massachusett people, whose villages once reached from Salem, Mass., to Plymouth along the coast and inland as far west as Worcester.

On October 4, Concord Academy’s Prison Justice Project hosted its annual Wrongful Conviction Day assembly. Alongside attorney Lisa Kavanaugh P’22 ’25, Sean Ellis and Stephan Pina shared stories of resilience, advocacy, and hope about their incarceration experience and the exoneree process.

On September 29, Mexican-American author Sergio Troncoso spoke at an assembly in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. He shared memories of his childhood in El Paso, Texas, and how it has influenced his life’s work as a writer and educator. Troncoso encouraged students to tell authentic stories that cross cultural and philosophical borders.

Concord Academy’s Gender Equity Task Force, led by Courtney Fields-Thomas, Alex Holmes, and Grant Hightower, has been modeling systemic change in supporting students of all genders. The school’s approach is grounded in the knowledge that this community has always been gender-diverse, whether it appeared so or not, and in its founding vision of advancing gender equity.

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability. If you want to have change, you have to fight for it,” historian Kellie Carter Jackson told the CA community during her Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote speech. This thought-provoking statement set the tone for a day of programming centered on social justice through group discussions, creative workshops, and a dance performance.

Medical Club brought a speaker from Health Care for All, Massachusetts, to campus to discuss the hurdles immigrants face in accessing health care. The club is partnering to change immigrant health care policy.

While parents and guardians attended Family Weekend classes on Friday, October 7, CA students engaged in Community and Equity Programming in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day. Concord Academy welcomed back acclaimed author, storyteller, and educator Larry Spotted Crow Mann to share his music and culture.

On September 30, CA welcomed Innocence Project speakers Lisa Kavanaugh P’22 ’25 and Sean Ellis, who presented about wrongful conviction. It was an exceptional opportunity for CA students, faculty, and staff to learn about advocacy for criminal legal system reform.

“How do we begin the hard work of self-reflection and opening our hearts to others we’ve been taught to fear?” Director of Community and Equity Grant Hightower posed this question during his opening remarks at CA’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Monday, January 17. Throughout the day set aside for talks, group activities, and interactive workshops, students selected from a wide variety of opportunities to engage in learning and reflection—many of them led by Concord Academy students as well as faculty.