Carmen Borbón, who spent eight years in the History department at Menlo, including four years as department chair, has stepped into a new role this fall as Director of Student Belonging. The position was created last year by former Chief of Institutional Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Keith Wheeler, but Borbon is the first to fill it.
Wheeler left Menlo at the end of the 2022-23 school year to serve as Head of School at the Giddens School, a private elementary school in his hometown of Seattle. According to the 2022-23 EDIB Strategic Plan, one of Wheeler’s goals was to expand the EDIB department, so he created Borbón’s new job that facilitates a sense of belonging amongst students.
“We realized that there was a lot of desire to have adults supporting students in feeling like they belong here in the school, and so we ultimately realized that that was probably more than just one person’s job,” Head of School Than Healy said.
According to Healy, each EDIB position has a different purpose. The Director of Family Support primarily works with families, the Director of EDIB focuses on adults and the Director of Student Belonging will work with students.
Borbón left her role as History Department Chair at the end of the 2022-23 school year after being accepted to her new role. However, Borbón was already working part-time with the EDIB team when she was a history teacher. “As much as I do love teaching history and love being in the classroom, I think for me, I felt like this was a bigger need,” Borbón said.
As the Director of Student Belonging, Borbón’s responsibilities include collaborating with teachers to ensure student’s needs are being met, working with the counseling department, managing summer programs such as the Kickstart program, teaching the freshmen rotation identity course and co-teaching a human skills class in the middle school.
Borbón plans on implementing new ideas and programs over time. “[I] need to observe first to see what’s going on and where the needs are and then address it because I don’t want to just create these things and then find out that they’re pointless,” Borbón said.
To many students, Borbón is not only a teacher, but also a role model. “I also see myself as a second mom to children on campus. So that’s why I made my office really cozy. So, if you need to take a nap or if you need help, I can help,” Borbón said.
In the wake of Wheeler’s departure, the Senior Administration Team is currently searching — and offering between a base salary between $160,000-$190,000 per year — for a new Director of EDIB. As outlined in a post on Jobvite by Menlo School, the Director of EDIB’s responsibilities include leading the EDIB team, delivering diversity, equity and inclusion to Menlo and analyzing admissions data that will be presented to the board of directors. According to the post, the Director would report to Healy and serve as a member of the Senior Administration Team.
