Welcoming over 50 students from independent high schools across New England, Andover hosted the annual fall retreat for the Social Justice Leadership Institute (SJLI) on October 19-20. Coordinated by The City School, the 48-hour program engaged high school students in conversations on race, class, gender, and sexuality.
Split into two days with the first focusing on racial affinity and the second focusing on gender and sexuality affinity, the retreat included group discussions and activities, with a sleepover in Kemper Auditorium between the two days. Char Esty, Coordinator of the Office of Community and Multicultural Development (CaMD), highlighted the meaningful connections that students made throughout the event and the flow of ideas between leaders across communities.
“Our friends at the City School that are based in Boston [facilitated a] conference on how to engage in personal leadership, student activism, talk about justice as it pertains to race, gender, class, sexuality and those systems on larger scales, a campus-scale, and a personal scale… There’s almost never enough time to do in-depth leadership training and this is one of those rare, all-in experiences,” said Esty.
Esty continued, “Many of our students say that their favorite part is networking and building community with other schools and students who are in similar leadership positions there, that part’s really cool. I’m most excited about seeing what they want to bring back to CaMD and PA. as a whole and how this conference shapes those ideas.”
Aeva Cleare ’26, a member of the Black Student Union (BSU) and Caribbean Club, attended the retreat on Sunday. She described the program as a good starting point for those exploring their identity.
“It was just a really good first step as someone who is trying to connect further with their identity. I’m Caribbean American but moved here when I was really little, so I don’t really know very much about myself in that aspect, so I’ve been trying to expand my knowledge in that area,” said Cleare.
Similarly, Quin Langham ’26, Co-Head of Non-Binary and Transgender Alliance (NATA) and board member of the Intersectional Feminist Forum (IFFo), enjoyed connecting with other students during the SJLI. However, Langham noted how the event’s heavy focus on anti-Black racism left non-Black students less time to discuss their own identities.
“There was a lot of focus on affinity spaces for people and it was a really good way to connect with others and talk about your experiences. I had a really good time sharing and being affirmed in my identity. My main issue was that on Saturday they were very much focused on anti-Black racism, which… wasn’t advertised that way. The main problem was that in the affinity groups for non-Black students there wasn’t space for them to connect about their own identities,” said Langham.
A member of Asian Society and Classicism at PA (CAPA), Ashiq Kibria ’26, in addition to this year’s event, also attended an advanced version of the retreat last winter. Kibria shared his experience meeting and reconnecting with students outside Andover and learning about social justice at other schools.
“Overall, it was a great experience, being able to meet with different people from other schools and being able to talk about how their schools deal with social justice issues… just being able to talk with everybody from different schools, especially schools like Choate, Lawrenceville, Dana Hall, they were all there. It was just a great opportunity and it was amazing that Andover was able to bring it to campus,” said Kibria.
The fall retreat will be followed by an advanced winter retreat held at Cushing Academy in February. According to Esty, Andover students will also attend the Student Diversity Leadership Conference in Denver in December. Esty expressed her gratitude for students’ continued engagement in these initiatives.
“[I’m] super grateful for the students who are participating and putting their effort into this. It means a lot. Our office is sustained on student engagement, so having so many people who are excited about this is really awesome and it’s what keeps us going as adults… We always have a lot of club programming, fun cultural, social events, so keep an eye on the Weekender for that,” said Esty.
