Commitment to Diversity
Our commitment to diversity is a driving force for our publication and one of my main personal goals for this year. To ensure our magazine features creative work from students of various ages, genders, and races, I have started both of my years as Editor by setting diversity goals with our Editorial Board as a goal for the upcoming magazine.
How we ensure diversity of...
Age
To ensure age diversity in our magazine, we accept submissions from students at feeder middle schools. We visit these schools to inform them about our program and inspire them to submit. We also accept submissions from teachers and faculty at Clarke Central and we reach out to these teachers at class talks.
Race
One of the main ways we get submissions is through our Editorial Board reaching out to potential submitters. It is built into our system that our Editorial Board considers all forms of diversity in who they reach out to, including racial diversity. Clarke Central is very racially diverse and it is incredibly important to me to reflect that in our magazine.
Experience
Our main goal as a publication is to create a magazine that is an accurate representation of our school that reflects all kinds of diversity that our school has to offer. One way we do this is to make sure to be reaching out to both AP classes, on level classes, and everything in between.
Visiting Middle Schools
In 2021, we visited both feeder middle schools in our district to let them know about the opportunity to submit their work to our magazine as 8th graders, as well as the ways in which they can get involved with our program once they come to high school.
Visiting High School Classes
Our core mission is to provide a representative conduit of expression for our student body, so representing our school is at the center of all we do. One way we ensure a representative magazine is by visiting every English and art class in the school to ensure every student knows about our mission and how to get involved. We make sure to visit every level of class to make sure our magazine doesn't just reflect one level of learning, gender, race, ethnicity, or age.
Infusion Magazine
I connected with the University of Georgia's multicultural magazine Infusion in August to set up a partnership with our magazines. Eight of their Editorial Board members co-hosted our October club meeting and spoke to students about diversity, equity, and inclusion in their multicultural magazine. It was great to see both iliad members and other CCHS students learn from a college magazine about such an important topic.
JEA Diversity Audit
I, along with members of our Editorial Board, filled out the JEA Diversity Audit. We answered questions about our program's commitment to diversity and came up with ways we can improve in terms of diversity and representation.
Hosting Diverse Authors and Artists
Hosting writers and artists for talks and Q&As is something the iliad does to give students the opportunity to learn from creative professionals. In a school that is over 70% people of color, it is important to us that we host diverse artists and authors so students can feel represented by those we host. We hosted United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey in May 2022 and we are hosting operatic soprano Angela Brown on February 24, 2023.
In the photo on the left, a student shows United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey their poem. Click the photo to view the event gallery.
