Serving One’s Community and Country: Purposeful Privilege in Action
I was extended the opportunity to join the Admissions Team in a part-time capacity five years ago today. As I began to work alongside Sue Smeaton, FXW’s longstanding and outstanding Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, my transition from parent to Admission team member was made easier because of my perspective as a parent associated with FXW for 19 years now (and I am not finished yet as we have a 7th grader). Almost immediately I was able to witness firsthand how our diverse community is sustained. I saw the mission of our great learning community manifested in every step of the admission process, and my role as a new member of this team only confirmed the decision my husband and I made back in 2000 to join the FXW family.
Over the past month, the Admissions Team have interviewed FXW applicant families for Preschool and Kindergarten who are eager for their children to become members of the Classes of 2032, 2033 and 2034, and what we heard in those meetings reverberated throughout last week’s Veteran’s Day assembly. Those parents and guardians want nothing more than to afford their children the privilege to become critically minded Thinkers and Leaders who have a heart to serve and learn in a richly diverse, inclusive, and faith-filled community such as FXW. They desire what we are already privileged to have. If you were unable to join the Veteran’s Day assembly last Wednesday, I encourage you to carve out a few moments to listen and/or watch purposeful privilege in action—which, when properly cultivated, creates meaningful change. It is through our dynamic home-school partnership that we develop graduates who become agents of change. And while there is a myriad of ways in which to achieve this goal, one of the paths to progress is examining where we have opportunities for growth.
On December 1, Julie Lythcott-Haims—author, former Stanford University Dean, and the first speaker featured in our Maggie Daley Speaker Series, will provide a community-wide opportunity for growth as she leads a live webinar to support the ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion work at ISACS accredited schools like FXW. “What it Means to be Black in White Spaces” promises to be a webinar to remember. As a registered ISACS institution, we will provide participation details in In the Loop and With Mission in Mind as soon as they become available. And just one week later on December 9 at 7 p.m., join the Maggie Daley Speaker Series’ Community Conversation on Race as Dr. Amanda Lewis and Dr. Derrick Gay respond to questions that weigh heavily on the minds of community members. To register for this event, click here.
Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday!
—Kendall Mallette, Director of Mission Integration
