Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
At Havergal we:
- Seek to identify and remove systemic barriers in order to increase access to opportunities for all in our Havergal community.
- Actively engage and expand diversity to learn and grow through the knowledge and perspectives it brings.
- Collectively take responsibility to create an intentional culture of inclusion.
- Sustain an environment and experience that allows students, faculty and staff to thrive, feel valued and experience a sense of belonging, as their authentic selves.
- Strive to live into the responsibilities set forth in the Truth & Reconciliation Calls to Action.
Our commitment to fostering an inclusive environment for students and staff is anchored in our broader dedication to Inclusive Excellence (IE)—a framework that inextricably links our pursuit of academic excellence with our responsibility to equity, diversity, inclusion, belonging (EDIB), and truth and reconciliation as settlers on this land.
The IE framework, structured around five dimensions and ten guiding approaches, charts our path forward and provides some additional guidance in how we seek to fulfill our mission. While aspirational, our commitment is rooted in both established theory and proven practice and emphasizes continued progress and growth over fixed outcomes.
Realizing the Vision
Realizing the Vision marks the first dimension, guiding Havergal along strategic pathways that integrate EDIB principles and Indigenous Ways of Being, Knowing and Doing (IWBKD) into our core ethos.
Who We Are
Who We Are acknowledges the essential role of representation across our community. From our students and staff to our leadership, a diverse community is essential for achieving inclusive excellence.
Working Together
Working Together emphasizes the collaborative efforts needed to build an inclusive and equitable environment. This dimension focuses on integrating diverse perspectives, fostering collaboration, and nurturing mutual understanding to create a true sense of belonging.
Achieving Excellence
Achieving Excellence speaks to our core commitment as an educational institution: promoting equity and inclusion through curriculum and learning opportunities for students, and professional growth and development opportunities for our faculty and staff.
Community Engagement
Community Engagement, the final dimension, recognizes that Havergal is part of a broader ecosystem—from independent schools to broader local, national, and global communities. This dimension is about both learning from and contributing to these communities to strengthen connections and drive positive change.
Together, these key dimensions and their guiding approaches serve as a roadmap for “preparing young women to make a difference” and reflect our unwavering commitment to excellence in all we do.
A Message from the Principal
Growing with our Community
At Havergal College, we believe that to equip students to make an impact in the world, we must foster a culture in which all people are respected and valued for their unique identity. We want to create a space where they are able to use their strengths and are actively encouraged to bring their “whole selves” to school. Over the last 24 months, we have been listening to students, employees, alumni and parents about their experiences at Havergal. They told us that their hope is to build a culture where there is space for multiple perspectives and that challenges the structures and systems within our school that have traditionally excluded people or made them feel they needed to conform to be included. We believe it’s important that we undertake this work together as a community.
Looking forward, we are committed to creating a more inclusive environment where different ideas, backgrounds and experiences inform our learning journey, and one in which our shared commitment to ongoing knowledge-seeking, compassion and accountability guides our growth. We acknowledge that we have a lot of listening, learning and unlearning to do as we build a plan for creating a more diverse, inclusive and equitable school.
At Havergal, we want to ensure every student has the opportunity to thrive. To create a space where this is possible, inclusion will be at the core of our work in the coming months. Ensuring varied identities are both included and represented in all facets of our institution will be integral to cultivating a place where every student can be their best.
We aspire to build a more diverse student and employee population that reflects both our local and global communities. This will also play an important role in making global citizens of our graduates. As a learning organization, we believe that excellence in academics includes the critical analysis of global and current events, requiring curriculum and pedagogy to be reviewed and refreshed regularly. Importantly, we also recognize that as an organization, we need to implement practices and processes that support the inclusion of anyone regardless of their gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age or disability status.
Our work in developing a strategic plan for diversity and inclusion at Havergal is in its early stages, but is underway and ongoing. Building this plan, doing this learning and listening to the individual and collective stories is a collaborative effort that requires all of us to engage with an open heart and mind. We will be reporting back regularly about the work that our students, employees, alumni, parents and Board members are doing to help inform and create this change. Together, we can build a Havergal community that is stronger, more diverse, more equitable and more inclusive.
Dr. Katrina Samson,
Principal
Student Forums: Affinity Groups & Alliances
Havergal has several Affinity Groups and Alliances for Upper School students and employees. Together, these spaces encourage learning and dialogue around identity, authentic allyship, EDIB issues and topics and help to foster a school community of inclusion where identities are affirmed and supported in their development. All of these groups run every two weeks.
What are Affinity Groups?
Affinity Groups are spaces that allow community members who share a common identity or an aspect of their identity—usually one that is marginalized or non-dominant—to gather and talk in a safe space about issues and experiences related to that identity.
What are Alliances?
Alliance means “the state of being allied.” Alliances are spaces where people who share a common commitment to those who hold marginalized identities and the issues that impact them, can gather to learn, engage in dialogue and mobilize action towards addressing these issues in their school community. They are open to everyone.
Affinity Groups & Alliances
- Black Students Affinity Group (BSA)
- Asian Students Affinity Group (ASA)
- BIPOC Students Affinity Group (BIPOC)
- Muslim Students Affinity Group (MSA)
- Jewish Students Affinity Group (JSA)
- Diversity Committee (DC)
- Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA)
- Feminist Alliance
- Christian Students Community