Diversity Week

We began Diversity Week with an overview of what's to come (student performances, special guests, a fashion show) by one of the co-presidents. Then the other co-president shared her story of coming to see her own multi-ethnic identity in new ways through her experiences at Bridge Builders.

The Rev. Billy Kyles

How to begin to describe this morning's chapel? After singing "Amazing Grace," the St. Mary's community welcomed a living legend. The Rev. Billy Kyles was standing on the balcony with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the evening he was shot. Rev. Kyles spoke about keeping dreams alive, quoting the poet Langston Hughes as a refrain. And he told us of the last night and then the last moments of the paragon of the Civil Rights movement. We were honored and inspired by his presence.
After chapel, about a dozen students spent another half hour asking him questions and listening to more of his stories, including the day he walked his five-year-old daughter into a school as the first black student.
What a gift to hear history told in the first person.