In the late winter, Lily McDevitt ’11 reconnected with Dean of Middle School (and her former 6th grade teacher) Kiri Harris at a Diversity Workshop. Based on the discussions they began that day, the two created an independent study for Lily at Greene Street Friends School focusing on the intentional diversity of the School. With approximately 50% of the student body identifying as students of color since the mid-1950s, GSFS was a wonderful place for Lily to delve deeper into what diversity means and how it can be incorporated and celebrated in a school setting. “It seemed like a really good fit and I thought it would be a lot of fun to come back,” Lily recalled.

The biggest surprise of all: “A lot more goes into diversity than I thought,” said Lily. “When I was a student here, it was definitely a diverse place, but it wasn’t really talked about.”

She compared what has stayed the same – the all-school feel, connections with teachers, traditions like the 3rd and 4th grade beach party – with elements like discussions about diversity that have evolved over the four years since she graduated. Lily was impressed by how faculty and staff responded to recent events in Ferguson and Staten Island, using these incidents to trigger discussions with their students and each other. She found that her project lined up well with the curriculum that teachers are using and that students were eager to work through issues around equality and justice.

Diversity has always been an important factor to Lily. She noted that in choosing Friends Select for high school and more recently Earlham College, where she will begin as a freshman in the fall, diversity was very important to her. “At a few schools I visited for college, I felt something was wrong. When I looked at the numbers, it’s because there wasn’t diversity.”

Looking back on her own Greene Street Friends experience, Lily says that the one element that stands out the most to her is the relationships that she formed with teachers and fellow students. She still keeps in touch with many members of the Class of 2011, organizing a college send-off for them on campus last Friday afternoon. Last summer, Lily and fellow GSFS alumni Emily Augenbraun ’12 and Zach Hersh ’12 returned to Costa Rica with Spanish teacher Sandra Rodriguez for a month of community service and Spanish immersion.

Lily credits traveling to Costa Rica with Sandra – both times! – for inspiring a love of languages and travel. She continues to study Spanish, as well as adding Arabic to her class roster. “I want to study more languages,” Lily adds. “I want to travel the world. I know it’s important to learn the language before going so I can really interact with people and learn about the culture.”

Wherever Lily goes, she knows that she will remain connected to Greene Street Friends. “It’s part of my family,” she says, noting that it connects her to her siblings Henry ’14 and Maggie ’18 as well as her mother, Anne Bayless who is the Clerk of the School Committee, Greene Street Friends School’s governing board. “We’ve been a Greene Street family for so long; it’s impossible to imagine not being so attached to the School.”