Widening the Lens 2025
The Far Brook School Diversity Conference
WELCOME!
We are thrilled to announce that our tenth annual Widening the Lens diversity conference for NJ independent schools will be held on Saturday, November 15th!
Over the past nine years, Widening the Lens has represented a day for NJ independent schools to engage with one another on topics that concern us all, including race, LGBTQ+ inclusion, socioeconomic diversity, belonging, equity, gender identity and expression, and community.
Our theme for this year, Celebrating 10 Years of Widening the Lens: Living our Missions and Staying the Course, provides a platform from which each school can reflect on their individual progress and recommit to the promises of their mission statements, mottos, and other guiding documents.
Participants will end this day of dialogue, collaboration, and action planning reenergized to truly live what we all espouse in print - a commitment to educate and nurture students who will embody the perspective, knowledge, compassion, and agency to make the world a better place.
We hope you will join us!
Morning Session Panel
This year, our morning session will feature a panel of New Jersey school leaders who will reflect on the past ten years of equity and belonging work in our schools as well as our theme of living our schools’ missions. We are honored to welcome the wisdom, expertise, and experience of this distinguished group of independent school leaders and past WTL participants.
Conference Structure
The unique structure of this conference follows the format of the Dalton School Diversity Conference (NYC), designed by Pollyanna Inc., a nonprofit devoted to increasing racial understanding. We invite schools to register a “pod” of individuals who will work together to advance the diversity and inclusion goals of their school. Each school pod consists of the Head of School, and two participants from each of seven constituencies:
- Administrators
- Alumni
- Diversity Practitioners
- Parents
- Students
- Teachers
- Trustees
Powerful learning and growth happen when we bring together this cross-section of voices and perspectives that exist within our own communities, and when we share our challenges, experiences, and best practices with colleagues from peer schools.