This school year, former Director of Student Belonging Carmen Borbón became the newly appointed Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. Following Marco Menendez’s decision to step down in June to be closer to family and to serve communities with greater need, Borbón has continued to approach student belonging through the lens of increasing access equity and connection on campus.
Borbón stepped into the role amidst a wave of national backlash from the Trump Administration toward diversity initiatives in universities. As high level education faces pressure regarding immigration, high schools across the nation may be reluctant to strongly emphasize diversity. President Donald Trump has threatened to eliminate DEI programs within the government, withhold funding from institutions that maintain them. Additionally, he proposed tighter visa rules for international students and workers, including new limits on F-1 and H-1B visas — which respectively allow international students to study in the U.S., foreign laborers to temporarily work in “specialty occupations” — and stricter screening processes for visas that signaled a broader push against international students and immigration.
Despite national uncertainty around diversity and belonging, Menlo’s stance on diversity remains clear: the school continues to emphasize diversity and belonging as a cornerstone of its community values. Head of School Than Healy shares his philosophy that belonging is a core value central to the Menlo community. “Having every student feel like they belong at this school is really core to who we are,” Healy said. “If we don’t have that, then it’s actually hard to do everything else that we endeavor to do.”
According to Menlo’s EDIB online page, EDIB education at Menlo, which includes classes like identity in the freshman seminar program and ethnic studies, is aimed at exposing students to the literature, languages and histories that will enable them to take on global perspectives and explore the relationships between senses of identity and community.
Former Upper School Office Administrative Assistant Courtney Tyler will also join Menlo’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) department as the Assistant Director of Student Belonging. The EDIB department is now a solely female team including Borbón, Tyler, Director of Family Support Miriam Magaña and Assistant Director of Family Support Fatima Taungahihifo.
According to Borbón, one of the department’s main goals is to continue to reinforce cultural belonging on campus, and that comes with a multi-layered approach. Borbón’s first decision was to change the name of her position from Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging to Director of Institutional Belonging, a decision she felt necessary given that her primary goal on campus is belonging. “This department, we’re ensuring that not just students, but faculty, parents, really anybody in this community, feels like this is a place where they belong,” Borbón said.
The next main part of the approach entails training students to learn more about civil discourse and be upstanders when they see or hear things on campus that hinder student belonging. Four Upper School students recently attended a virtual training on civil discourse and respectful disagreement, and they will present what they learned in an upcoming middle school assembly using real-life scenarios.
“Especially given the climate in the country where there’s a lot of very polarized conversations, I think it’s super important for young people, especially, to know how to disagree with each other in a way that is productive and respectful,” Borbón said.
The EDIB department has laid out specific steps to achieve these goals in Menlo’s five year plans, which aims to promote belonging over the long term. The most recent strategic plan that the EDIB team is currently developing will focus on belonging mentorship programs, and updating Menlo’s freshman rotation curriculum to include a focus on moral courage — a key value that Healy emphasized at an Upper School assembly at the start of the school year.
Healy reflects that Menlo students navigate an increasingly global world and interact with all kinds of people from different backgrounds regularly, and that it’s vital to equip students with the necessary tools to do so. “This team is really charged with ensuring that we have the structures and processes and the education in place so that everybody can feel like ‘this is my place,’” Healy said.
According to Healy, availability on campus means that each student has access to the same opportunities and resources, like campus lunches, school events, Menlo abroad trips, etc. “We have a philosophy that if it’s available to one student it’s available to all students,” Healy said.
In terms of accessibility, Healy believes that access to resources like financial aid, technology assistance, translation and transportation, among other things should be as simple as possible. The family support team has also worked to incorporate translation services for families in recent years. Magaña and Taungahihifo have worked to ensure that any major communication put out by the school, and even in person events like back to school night or the state of the school address, can be understood by all Menlo community members, regardless of language barriers. “If you don’t have the information [you need], you can’t actually be the parent to your kid that you want [to be],” Healy said.
Menlo faculty members also regularly attend workshops and conferences on diversity, equity and inclusion to be better equipped to teach their students in equitable and inclusive ways, something Borbón says they plan to continue.
Another priority for the team is building relationships that allow them to better assess the needs of individuals and groups on campus so that they can implement changes that make people feel more comfortable on campus. “It’s really helpful to have that trust from people,” Tyler said.
While their roles involve different responsibilities, each member of the EDIB team shares an obligation to connect with members of the Menlo community, from parents and students to faculty members and neighbors. This allows the team to observe injustices on campus before problems arise. “We can’t do our job without good relationships with faculty, staff, with teachers, with college counseling, and with the admissions office,” Magaña said.
Tyler reflects on Menlo’s continued efforts towards student belonging. “I feel super grateful to be at a school where we have four people in this department and that’s pretty unique. […] So I think that says a lot about Menlo, and you know where it lays its priority,” Tyler said.
