Corps 18 VISTA's

Thanks Alexandra, for your awesome February Blog!

Topic: What does diversity mean to you and how are you celebrating it this month?

Enka Middle School is a diverse community, but at first glance, it may not appear that way.  Diversity goes beyond just the notable physical appearances and differences and language variations. Enka’s 1000 students come from diverse backgrounds that are almost invisible at first glance. A lot of Middle School students are not open about their lives outside of school and so they go unnoticed. The focus is often on things the students have in common: Common Core standards, Math, Language Arts, and EOG scores. But in order for Middle Schoolers to be successful in academics, their diverse backgrounds need to be taken into account.

A natural example of diversity in the Enka-Candler community is the Hispanic and Russian neighborhoods. We offer a variety of parent and family programs in the evening at Enka Middle School. So far we’ve held two computer literacy nights, three healthy living nights, and a family game night. Diversity comes up the most when we’re talking about literacy. If our literacy nights focus solely on the English language, we are missing a crucial part of the community. This is one of those examples where it is crucial to take diversity into account. But like I mentioned earlier, language variations are a more noticeable form of diversity.

My main work is planning and implementing after-school enrichment for students. Because we’re trying to reach a variety of students, diversity is something we need to take into account. What do students who come from different communities need? What do they want? I think after-school clubs are a good way to acknowledge the diversity of students because there are not federal or national standards they need to adhere too. During the after-school hours, students have more freedom to explore their diverse interests.

In terms of celebrating diversity, I think it’s important for students to understand and respect the differences between themselves and their classmates. Celebrating diversity should be a part of everyday life. It’s great to talk about diversity at a national and global level but it is also important to talk about local diversity and the differences students experience in their community and their neighborhoods.

Alexandra is a VISTA serving at United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County. She is the Student Success Coordinator for the Community school Initiative at Enka Middle school. 

Keep up the great work!