“The world is full of people who work in solidarity, who advocate for justice, and who build bridges to connect us,” said Commonwealth's Head of School Jennifer Borman, beginning the school’s seventeenth-annual Diversity Day. “That's what we'll be doing today, and ideally every day of the year, with an open mind and an open heart.”

Founded by students in 2007 and now an annual tradition, Diversity Day is a school-wide experience focused on conversation and community. “Connection and kindness are woven deeply into the fabric of a Commonwealth education,” said Commonwealth’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Clinton Williams, who orchestrated this year’s event, a day that celebrated traditions and tapped into the past while encouraging our community to think about our interconnected, global future. 

Addressing the school, Mr. Williams noted that Charles Merrill founded Commonwealth only three years after the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education, a time when many private schools in America were created to enforce and further segregation. Mr. Merrill imagined the opposite: “a space where exceptional students from diverse backgrounds, like you all, receive an exceptional educational experience,” said Mr. Williams, harkening to his Baptist roots as he called Commonwealth a “beacon of hope.” 

“Diversity at Commonwealth was an explicit intention and value since our founding in 1957,” echoed Ms. Borman. Mr. Merrill wanted to enroll “sons of janitors and daughters of lawyers” and provide them with an excellent education that would enable them to both pursue their dreams and devote their talents to making the world a better place. “Despite Mr. Merrill's intentions, Commonwealth has not always been a school where different students felt equally seen and included,” she noted, “and that's part of our work today.” 

Keynote speaker Eugene Flood ’73 reminded students, faculty, and staff of the poignancy of that founding mission. Quite literally the son of a janitor, Dr. Flood reflected on his time as a Commonwealth student in the late ’60s and early ’70s, as the world still reeled from the assassinations of President Kennedy; Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Malcolm X, as well as the Vietnam War. At Commonwealth he found the sort of academic preparation that propelled him to Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and the highest echelons of international business—despite feeling isolated as one of five Black students and facing the racism of lowered expectations from school administrators. “We really don't think it's a good idea for you to go to Harvard,” he remembers them saying. “We need to shoot for something that is more along the lines of where you'll fit.” (He got into Harvard and was one of the co-valedictorians of his Commonwealth class.) This sort of “well-intentioned” advice was not new to Dr. Flood or his family. As early as third grade, Dr. Flood’s teachers told his parents “he'll never be a scholar,” he recalls. “He's not going to be good at math.” (He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT.)

“There were times where, as a young man, listening to some of the feedback I was getting, I was thinking, ‘Okay, well maybe I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe I won't fit,’” he said. “Thankfully, I had lots of people around me telling me, ‘Just do your best.’” A professor as well as a businessman, Dr. Flood has returned to Commonwealth in the spirit of education many times since graduating. “We have a responsibility, bringing young people along. We have responsibility, bringing the other adults along, too,” he told the crowd. “So let's set the example about how we talk to each other.”   

Dr. Flood’s speech touched on a lifetime of transformational experiences, from seeing his first Black scientist as an undergrad at Harvard to serving as the only person of color on the faculty at Stanford Business School to his work with Research Corporation for Science Advancement, which finds and funds the work of historically underrepresented scientists. (Their alumni/ae include forty-three Nobel laureates.) He also explained how his own view of diversity evolved through a career in international business, from implementing Quran-compliant financial regulations in Malaysia to shifting his profit-maximization mindset to suit the centralized economy in China. “I had to step back, take a deep breath, and say, ‘Okay, well, let me think about it from that perspective, if I'm going to be helpful,’” he said. “What I found is that by embracing diversity across many different dimensions, we can accomplish things that we never knew could be done.” Dr. Flood then ushered students, faculty, and staff into the day urging them to “learn a lot. Be open to different ways of thinking, and what you will find is that will empower you and enable you to do things.”

Beginning the day in small groups, students and faculty advisors discussed what they were most excited about—like exploring new cultures and ideas—and what might make them nervous—like navigating tough conversations and possible disagreements. But as Mr. Williams explained at long recess on Tuesday, the goal is dialogue, not debate, and he discussed the importance of being able to sit in discomfort, to consider points of view that might challenge our own, to embrace complexity and nuance, to recover when we misstep, and to approach that which we don’t understand with curiosity and kindness. All are key to a more welcoming and just world. 

Many ninth graders noted how they had never experienced an event like Diversity Day before, but they were excited to learn from peers and teachers, who led such workshops as “Queer Archives as an Act of Resistance,” “The Imposter Syndrome of Having Mixed Cultures,” and “What Does It Mean to Study the Caribbean?” Repeat workshops, like “An Introduction to the Cultural Differences of the Muslim World,” “Using Art to Connect to Your Culture,” and “Cookin’ Up Community: Jewish Foods," are already becoming traditions at Commonwealth, drawing in new generations of students after years of rave reviews from upperclassmen. 

In a session dedicated to discussing the presidential election, held just two days earlier, students reflected on how they’ve only known a politically polarized world, with rifts deepened by echo-chamber media and largely politically homogeneous cities and towns. They shared concerns, questions, and hopes for restoring civil, constructive dialogue and finding common ground despite disagreements. 

The day also included workshops with visiting presenters: A school-wide panel with SpeakOUT Boston featured three LGBTQ+ speakers who shared personal stories about coming out, finding community, and becoming comfortable in their own skins—a winding, sometimes painful, but ultimately empowering journey for them all. And a workshop by Castle of our Skins explored Black artistry through music and quilting, filling our Cafegymnatorium with marimba music. In honor of the day’s theme, Commonwealth in the Global World, Chef Dethie and the kitchen team prepared Senegalese chicken yassa and sweet potato mafe, plus Chef Ana’s own Diversity Day tradition: salpicão, Brazilian chicken salad. A Family Food Festival, with delicious small bites from students and their families, returned to round out the feast.

Ms. Borman began Diversity Day by invoking the motto found on U.S. currency since 1795: E pluribus unum. “Out of many, one.” The Latin phrase was adopted to signify the unity of the thirteen U.S. colonies. In the wake of a divisive presidential election, “it feels like we as a country are experiencing the converse: out of one, many. We feel divided and sometimes alienated from each other,” she said. “Today is a day to explore those differences and all that we share, the pluribus and the unum. That's a sophisticated mode of thinking: to see at the same time the parts and the whole.” Through curiosity and empathy—on Diversity Day and long after—we allow ourselves to grow as individuals, as a community, and, just maybe, as a society. 

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