This year, MICDS welcomed 52 students from nine St. Louis area schools, including Nerinx Hall, McCluer North, Webster Groves, Clayton, Chaminade, Lutheran North, Incarnate Word, Visitation, and Cardinal Ritter College Prep, to the annual Student Diversity Leadership Conference. The student-planned conference is a welcome opportunity for students to engage in meaningful conversations and activities, and, in addition to 50 of our own students, the diverse group of students, faculty, and facilitators dove into the theme of “Breaking Barriers.”
The iDentity club planned every aspect of the day, including promoting the conference, registering students to attend, designing the logo, t-shirts, lunch menu, all small and large group activities, discussion questions and prompts, and scheduling the keynote speaker. Students practiced skills such as finding a middle ground on hot topics, discussing issues of concern in their communities and schools, and, most importantly, brainstorming solutions for making effective changes in the future.
Nicole Trueman-Shaw, Director of Upper School Student Leadership, said, “I want to give a big shoutout to Kenadi McDile ’24, who reached out to author, poet, and motivational speaker Dr. Omékongo Dibinga‘s booking agent, negotiated a rate the club could manage, and booked a renowned international speaker for our conference day. The title of his talk was ‘Be An Upstander, Not a Bystander,’ which blended perfectly with the conference theme.”
iDentity co-head Zoie Tolson ’24 shared, “Over the past three years, the Student Diversity Leadership Conference has prepared me with true leadership skills. For the past two years, I’ve been able to use these skills to plan the iDentity Conference alongside the other iDentity co-heads. It was truly a student-led conference, and we had total control to do what we thought would best serve the club’s mission. As a co-head, I took many different ideas from others and combined them into a fully planned day; this club allowed me the opportunity to expand my planning and communication skills. Personally, I was in contact with other school diversity leaders, creating the itinerary and moderating the activities during the conference. I am so happy for the club to continue in the following years, as I know great ideas are already brewing.”
Trueman added, “I’m going to miss our outgoing iDentity co-heads Kenadi McDile ’24, Zoie Tolson ’24, and Ishika Kanjerla ’24, and I’m confident the rising leadership within the club will keep the legacy going.”
The conference united schools as a community and generated ideas on how each person can take small or large actionable steps to break barriers in their lives and community. What an excellent example of our students living the MICDS mission to meet the world’s challenges with confidence and compassion and stand for what’s good and right!