The Spirit of MLK Award Recipients Announced

Waynflete’s Diversity Advisory Group (DAG), a committee of faculty and staff, sponsored the first annual Spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. Award.  Students in the Upper and Middle School were invited to submit writings on the importance of continued commitment to racial justice and equality at Waynflete, in our community, and in the world.  Members of DAG reviewed submissions.  At assembly on Tuesday, Lindsay Kaplan, a member of DAG, announced the Upper School recipients:  Karlina Gonzalez ’15, Najma Abdullahi ’18, and Sarah Daoudi ’17.  In addition, she named Anna Lee ’16 as first runner up and Luna Soley ’18 as honorable mention.

The award recipients were given A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of MLK, Jr.,  and they will represent Waynflete, along with faculty and the Middle School recipients, Julia Fiori, Sarah Acheson-Field, and Andrew Johannen, at the annual MLK Breakfast hosted by the Portland chapter of the NAACP.  We look forward to hearing more from the participants about that experience.

Next week, the Upper School will hold an assembly celebrating the work of Dr. King and the civil rights movement he led.  We will do so by featuring a recent iteration of Dr King’s legacy, the work of RAaW (Racial Awareness at Waynflete).  RAaW is a student activity group open to all that holds weekly conversations about race and sponsors events for the Waynflete community intended to raise awareness about racial issues in America.  The work of RAaW has been important since its inception in 2008 and seems even more so now than ever.  The following week, we will hold RAaW style discussions in a long advising lunch period about where the civil rights movement stands today.