From December 3 to December 5, four Dana Hall students attended the National Association for Independent Schools (NAIS) People of Color Conference (PoCC) in Denver, Colo. The theme of the conference was “Moving Mountains: Mining Within.”

The Dana students were split up into different groups for the three-day conference, to participate in activities, listen to speakers and attend workshops. Director of Dance Devon Fitchett chaperoned the Dana group “The conference taught the girls to use personal strength to support diversity in their community,” said Fitchett. “Everyone at some point feels as though they don’t fit in somewhere; especially during adolescence. The workshops the students attended were designed to make them aware of diversity, to feel comfortable with who they are and how to bring what they learned back to Dana Hall.”

“I found the conference invaluable,” said A. Pina ’10. “This was my second year attending, and both times I came back with a better sense of myself and my values.”

An activity that impacted Pina was the “share our stories” session in which students wrote an excerpt of their personal history on a piece of paper. Everyone was then asked to walk around in silence and exchange stories. “The story I ended up with was about a girl’s difficulty with her family. I am so fortunate to have such a supportive family and the activity made me appreciate them even more,” Pina explained. “The focus and the love that we, the students, shared for each other was indescribable.”