On April 2nd, students in the Social Justice Club went to the Connections Conference in Massachusetts to give a presentation from our school on inclusion and creating a culture based on belonging.

“I just loved seeing you guys make connections with complete strangers,” said Brook Mazzarella, the advisor for the social justice club.

There were two activities facilitated by students: a step-in circle, asking questions that became gradually more personal, and an inclusion quilt where messages were written to represent everyone.

“I think the step in circle is a great visual of how the things that make us feel alone are actually the things that can bring us together,” said Mazzerella.

The step in circle was meant to bring everyone together and get out of their comfort zone. The questions were tailored to create a sense of community and appreciation rather than calling people out for something that makes them different.

“They were ab

le to understand our point, and I think they internalized that idea, and figured that they could use this idea that everybody is more similar than we probably think,” said Coraline Mongillo, a member of the social justice club who presented at the conference.

The inclusion quilt is meant to inspire people to be inclusive and give ideas on how to do that. In the upper hub of Morgan, we have one that was made in advisories by our students to represent themselves and others through being ‘woven together’ in a sense through the quilt.

The objective of this presentation was to make people feel more connected by things that would normally make them feel alone. During discussions in the step-in-circle activity, students from schools all over New England shared things about themselves that made them unique, and came together through being different.

“But then once we started to do the circle they realized ‘oh maybe this person that I didn’t know could be different than I though and maybe id like to get to know them,” said

Mongillo, speaking on how people always make assumptions about others without any proof behind them, oftentimes being wrong. The step in circle was a way for people to change these ideas in their heads and show that everyone is more similar than we think.

“I could just tell there was a level of respect and you guys wanted to get to know each other,” said Mazzerella. The presentation was well-received by the students in the session and created the environment that the club was looking to facilitate.

The presentation was practiced during advisory on February 12th with students at Morgan with their grades. “Some didn’t take it seriously, some did kind of the opposite of what we were intending,” said Mazzerella, speaking on the advisory practice. “So I think it was very validating for us to do that in a setting where you were with like-minded students.”

The Social Justice club feels overall that they succeeded in their goal of making people feel similar through the things that make them different. “It felt really cool to be in a room of people who embraced their uniqueness and saw it as a superpower instead of something that isolated them,” said Mazzarella