On Wednesday, October 3, students from Fieldston, University Heights High School, and SAR Academy made their way to Van Cortlandt Park for the first meeting of the School Partnership Program. Over the next several hours, the park became the site of both cutthroat games of capture the flag, and profound discussions about privilege.
Led by Nancy Banks and Rachel Ehrlich, the program seeks to bridge the gap between three wildly different schools and help participants gain a better understanding of each other. Student and faculty feedback rework the program’s structure each year in order to strengthen it further. One major change for the 2018-2019 year is the creation of an advisory board with several representatives from each school. This allows for the students to have a seat at the table, deciding what issues should be focused on and the best activities or prompts to do so.
“The board was started over the summer. We plan the meetings: when they are and what we do, and come up with different ways to organize the program,” said member Olivia Murray (VI). “For example, a representative from SAR suggested that we have discussion groups that remain constant throughout the year, and our job as representatives from Fieldston was to group the Fieldston kids together.”
“The goal of the first meeting was to for everyone to get to know each other and get excited about the year ahead. I think it went really well, and I’m really excited to watch the program develop!” Murray added.
Taking advantage of the weather and space of Van Cortlandt, the day started with a game of capture the flag. Then, once the ice was broken, everyone lined up and participated in a privilege walk. Students stepped forward or backwards if a given statement was true for them.
The varying degrees of familiarity with the activity, and with each other, allowed for interesting dialogues. In small groups, students debriefed the activity and what it represented. When asked to pick one phrase to sum up the experience, almost half of one group described it as “eye opening.”
“In my small group, we had a really interesting discussion about what it means to be Jewish at SAR versus at Fieldston, as well as a discussion about who a privilege walk really benefits. We talked about the difference between feeling uncomfortable being in the back of the group, and feeling uncomfortable of being in the front and being confronted with your privilege,” said Jael Strell (VI).
After pizza and several trips to Lloyd’s Carrot Cake, students reconvened in their small groups to brainstorm a list “things that were hard to talk about.” The purposefully vague prompt allowed for the groups to get to know each other and start to discuss into topics that were deemed “difficult,” in a natural way.
“It was really interesting to see how many similarities we had,” said Sydney Bergen (VI). “A lot of the time, coming into programs like School Partnership, I tend to think that it will really expose our differences. Instead, one of the main things I got out of this meeting was how similar we all are. Sure, we all come from different backgrounds, different experiences and hardships, but many of the conversations we had were about typical things that teenagers go through, such as being stressed about college and standardized tests, the TV shows we like, [and] troubles we had with our parents and friends and in general.”
For those new to the program this year, this day was especially formative. “The first experience with the program was both fun and challenging, which definitely gave me a good idea of how it would be in the future. I was able to engage in playful activities as well as be pushed out of my comfort zone. I found the experience really valuable and I am looking forward to the rest of the year,” said Daphne Zuckerman (V).
Moving forward, a key focus of the program this year is to delve deeper into the intersection between similarities and differences and between fun and challenge. The best conversations, relationships and bonds often lie in the space between.
