.png){kind=logo}
News
DIVERSITY DAY: CELEBRATING MORE THAN 20 YEARS AND COUNTING
Earlier this month, Regis Jesuit held our 20th annual Diversity Day Conference. This event finds its roots back in 1998 when Tom Robinson ’64, RJ’s first Diversity Director, and a small group of Regis Jesuit parents came together to “cook up” a celebration for the community. Known as the Cultural Heritage Festival, the RJHS community gathered on a Sunday afternoon for a few hours every February to offer a taste of their various cultures. Performers from studios around town came to showcase dances from different regions of the world. Attendees feasted on traditional food from around the world, watched the traditional dances and learned a little more about some of their classmates’ home cultures. In 2006 this cheerful, generous Cultural Festival morphed into our current annual Diversity Day Conference. For the last 20 years, Diversity Day is one school day where, instead of classes, we take time to celebrate, educate and explore the diversity that we find in ourselves and the world around us from Regis Jesuit to the greater Denver area to the world. It is a manifestation of the mission of the Jesuits and Regis Jesuit to see God in all things.
For nearly 500 years, “Jesuit education has opened student imaginations to things greater than the self, to the possibilities of a different reality and to a glimpse of the mysteries that lie at the core of existence.”(1) As Pope Francis shared with the students and faculty at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Jesuit education is meant to “ignite and animate the spark of grace in what is human.”
In pursuit of this goal, a diverse student body becomes part of the educational experience, better preparing students to work in an increasingly multicultural world, one in which local, national and international tensions are often grounded in cultural, religious or linguistic differences. As such, we believe that it is important to offer a curriculum that doesn’t always fit into the typical academic classroom. Our Diversity & Kinship Office provides a curriculum through which our students can explore what it means to be one piece of a diverse community.
Diversity Day ties together the myriad discussions, presentations and concepts the students have already experienced throughout the year. For our conference, we invite nearly 100 presenters to the school to share their perspectives on the world. We offer workshops that challenge our students’ way of thinking, engage them in dialogue and excite them to learn more. The workshops vary in topic and focus to include themes of ethnicity, socio-economic status, immigration, language and religion, etc. The variety of workshops offers either hands-on experience, a conversation, discussion or a lecture.
At this year’s conference, students had the opportunity to choose three workshop sessions from among the 96 unique workshops offered. Of those sessions, 18 were offered by current students, 21 were offered by teachers and five were offered by alumni working in sectors that promote the social justice values that their RJ education instilled in them.
Our 20th-anniversary theme, For the Greater Glory of All God’s Diverse Creation, connects us back to the call to mission given us by the Society of Jesus in the form of the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences two and four. We recognize that we are a part of a network greater than our school, and the Society is rooted in remembering that each human person is created in the image and likeness of God, therefore deserving of dignity and respect. The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms this when it states, “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a human person.” This year we also turned to the earth and our impact on it based on Pope Francis’ words in his encyclical Laudato Sí, “St. Francis of Assisi shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and interior peace.”
Diversity Day, the other events we do throughout the year like our lunchtime Taste of Regis Jesuit (a throwback to our Sunday Cultural Festival), our celebrations of specific cultures throughout the year and our speakers who come to share their stories are all important to help us see beyond the routines and mindsets we can we get caught within. These opportunities allow us all to put the books and technology down and learn simply through experience and genuine engagement with each other. The day provides us a pathway to be truly open to the presence of God, to one another, ourselves, and really to consider our place in this world.
We likely don’t have the opportunity to experience a lot of different cultures day-to-day, but on Diversity Day, we get to immerse ourselves. We get the time to build on our current relationships more deeply, and the opportunity, if we choose to be open and vulnerable, to create new relationships. Finally, a day like Diversity Day asks us all to consider where we are called to be a person with and for Others in a deeper, more inclusive way. We bring unique selves, our own experiences and perspectives, all of which are so valuable. On Diversity Day, the value comes with being curious and asking questions so that we can learn just a little bit more about how someone else is unique and special.
In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis invites us to promote a “culture of encounter.” He states, "To speak of a ‘culture of encounter’ means that we, as a people, should be passionate about meeting others, seeking points of contact, building bridges and planning a project that includes everyone.” It is my hope that our annual Diversity Day continues to foster ways that we can better encounter one another and thus be better in community with one another at Regis Jesuit and well beyond.
Back
In pursuit of this goal, a diverse student body becomes part of the educational experience, better preparing students to work in an increasingly multicultural world, one in which local, national and international tensions are often grounded in cultural, religious or linguistic differences. As such, we believe that it is important to offer a curriculum that doesn’t always fit into the typical academic classroom. Our Diversity & Kinship Office provides a curriculum through which our students can explore what it means to be one piece of a diverse community.
Diversity Day ties together the myriad discussions, presentations and concepts the students have already experienced throughout the year. For our conference, we invite nearly 100 presenters to the school to share their perspectives on the world. We offer workshops that challenge our students’ way of thinking, engage them in dialogue and excite them to learn more. The workshops vary in topic and focus to include themes of ethnicity, socio-economic status, immigration, language and religion, etc. The variety of workshops offers either hands-on experience, a conversation, discussion or a lecture.
At this year’s conference, students had the opportunity to choose three workshop sessions from among the 96 unique workshops offered. Of those sessions, 18 were offered by current students, 21 were offered by teachers and five were offered by alumni working in sectors that promote the social justice values that their RJ education instilled in them.
Our 20th-anniversary theme, For the Greater Glory of All God’s Diverse Creation, connects us back to the call to mission given us by the Society of Jesus in the form of the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences two and four. We recognize that we are a part of a network greater than our school, and the Society is rooted in remembering that each human person is created in the image and likeness of God, therefore deserving of dignity and respect. The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms this when it states, “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a human person.” This year we also turned to the earth and our impact on it based on Pope Francis’ words in his encyclical Laudato Sí, “St. Francis of Assisi shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and interior peace.”
Diversity Day, the other events we do throughout the year like our lunchtime Taste of Regis Jesuit (a throwback to our Sunday Cultural Festival), our celebrations of specific cultures throughout the year and our speakers who come to share their stories are all important to help us see beyond the routines and mindsets we can we get caught within. These opportunities allow us all to put the books and technology down and learn simply through experience and genuine engagement with each other. The day provides us a pathway to be truly open to the presence of God, to one another, ourselves, and really to consider our place in this world.
We likely don’t have the opportunity to experience a lot of different cultures day-to-day, but on Diversity Day, we get to immerse ourselves. We get the time to build on our current relationships more deeply, and the opportunity, if we choose to be open and vulnerable, to create new relationships. Finally, a day like Diversity Day asks us all to consider where we are called to be a person with and for Others in a deeper, more inclusive way. We bring unique selves, our own experiences and perspectives, all of which are so valuable. On Diversity Day, the value comes with being curious and asking questions so that we can learn just a little bit more about how someone else is unique and special.
In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis invites us to promote a “culture of encounter.” He states, "To speak of a ‘culture of encounter’ means that we, as a people, should be passionate about meeting others, seeking points of contact, building bridges and planning a project that includes everyone.” It is my hope that our annual Diversity Day continues to foster ways that we can better encounter one another and thus be better in community with one another at Regis Jesuit and well beyond.
Main-Visitor Entrance
Regis Jesuit High School
Mail-Delivery Address
Regis Jesuit High School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic and other school-administered programs.