By Danielle Carr, ’18
This year, Coexist has once again been the center of student diversity events at Cary Academy. As its own club, it launched the lunchtime Symposium Series to dive into artistic duty and identity, and it established Courageous Conversations to debrief about sensitive topics. Coexist also worked to unite the affinity groups through the first Affinity Group Cookoff. And the twelve affinity groups have done some pretty extraordinary things themselves.
As Arm Kassam, the Chief Diversity Officer, says, “African American Affinity Group took a trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Asian American Affinity Group took a look at affirmative action, Gender and Sexuality Alliance held Day of Silence discourse that united the Middle and Upper schools, Students for Gender Equality raised nearly $1000 for anti-sexual harassment initiatives, Indian Subcontinent Affinity Group held an incredibly colorful Holi celebration- and this is only a fraction of our programming this year”.
Coexist’s contribution to the CA community has always been invaluable, providing outlets for student minorities to discuss their experiences in Cary Academy and beyond. The provoking discussions that Coexist and the affinity groups catalyzed have spread to lunch tables and classrooms, making CA a place open to mixing ideas and opinions. Much of the credit for Coexist’s accomplishments goes to Arm, who has been dedicated to the club and the student body in general since day one. Independent of his impressive contributions to the diversity programs, he has become the most beloved student in the senior grade, being voted as class speaker for graduation and “most likely to be an undercover superhero”, which was not the only superlative he received the majority vote for.
About his departure, Arm says, “I’m really, really going to miss the Diversity and Inclusion community at CA, but I know that the leadership will do a great job expanding upon our efforts next year and continuing some of the powerful discussions we’ve had!” Next year, Lily Levin is taking the torch as Chief Diversity Officer, and she will undoubtedly continue the legacy of inclusion at Cary Academy.