A typical meeting for the Student Equity and Diversity Council (SEDC) starts at 5pm. Every Monday, these Hall High students meet online to discuss potential solutions to problems of equity that they see around their school. 

The idea for the club came to the founder and co-leader, Grace Wright-Goodison in January of 2021, when she was working for her Girl Scouts Gold Award. Grace was set on creating something that could benefit the Hall community, and give students a real voice. 

As the senior stated, “I kept hearing a lot of people around me talk about issues that were going on at school that they weren’t happy with, but no one seemed to have a solution”. 

She wanted to have a place for students to come up with their own ideas and “actually work on making those changes themselves”. And with co-leaders Dhurshanie Ramlall and Hannah Roggendorf, she’s been able to do that. 

Last year, the Student Equity and Diversity Council was involved in an Equity summit; they presented to other students about ways to be a leader, and how to actively contribute to your community as a student. Currently, the SEDC is working on creating a list of scholarship and stem experiences for students of different groups and identities. 

“It could be helpful to see what opportunities you can have based on your identity”, comments new member Niya Bramble, who just joined this year. 

The SEDC is a purely student-run club, and while their faculty advisor Mrs. Buller is actively present, it’s the student members who come up with the ideas that the club acts on. This was intriguing for members like Niya, who thought it could be beneficial to have a student-run equity and diversity club. 

“If it’s student-run, we can get more accurate input”, says Niya when commenting about why she joined the SEDC.

The Student Equity and Diversity Council is still a relatively new club at Hall and doesn’t have many active members yet. However, those who do come to help the student body. They’ve already completed their first project: the Drop Box form on the Hall website which allows students to express specific concerns to the club. That way, students can feel empowered to speak up and create the change they’ll see at school. 

And like Grace knows, “…every single student has an opinion on the school, every single student has an experience at the school, and only having a small number of kids with a limited number of perspectives, doesn’t do as much as having a large group of kids with a bunch of different perspectives.”

“I think it would be better if we had more students so we could have a more diverse group of people talking about these diverse issues so they could bring all of their perspectives into it”, says Niya

Join the Student Equity and Diversity Council if you want to make a difference in the school, and actually have your voice heard on issues of inclusion.