Building Inclusivity
Intern Has Family Ties at Fenn hen he was a student at Fenn, Kwame Cobblah ’03 was the only boy of African descent in his grade, all the way through graduation. His brother, Anoff, was two grades ahead of him. Some kids, he says, couldn’t understand how Tete, who was born in Ghana, could be their father, and Elizabeth, who is Caucasian, their mother. There were no student diversity committees, he points out, and “the only time I remember talking about race or segregation in a class was in Integrated Studies, when the teacher brought up apartheid.” Kwame, who is the Teaching and Diversity Intern this year and who was a Fenn Fellow last winter, says he “would love to be” a student at Fenn now. “I’m amazed how much the school has changed in this respect,” he says of efforts to build an inclusive community. Those changes include the language that is used by students, especially in the locker room; “I don’t hear ethnic or racial comments or jokes, ever,” he says. Multicultural approaches are part of the curriculum, “and the kids on student diversity committees are involved and willing to participate in discussions and activities. They’re so curious and open.” The student diversity committees meet once a week during lunch, when “these kids talk about diversity freely, even when my father, Jenn Youk See, and I are sitting right in front of them,” Kwame says, adding, “I realized right away that you don’t need to be technically diverse to be educated about differences and to appreciate people of
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other races and cultures.” The words “my father” prompt the inevitable question. When Kwame was appointed, one of the first things his
“I’m amazed how much the school has changed in this respect,” Kwame says of Fenn’s efforts to build an inclusive community. new colleagues, some of whom are his former teachers, asked him was, “How is it to work for Tete?” Kwame, who is as easygoing as his dad, says he likes it: “I know my father so well that I know what he expects.” Tete treated his son the same way he did all of his students, once giving Kwame a Recess Recall for being late to class. “The other kids loved it,” Kwame declares. Kwame hasn’t always been in communities that are inclusive. When he was a student at an upstate New York college, he had a demoralizing experience. One day, when he accidentally didn’t hold a door for a
female student, she “used the n-word” to show her displeasure. “I know it was ignorance, but from that point on I was tuned into this kind of behavior and it bothered me,” he says. After a year, Kwame transferred to Suffolk University, which was “much more diverse, multi-cultural, and urban,” he says. While a student, he participated in community service at a Head Start program in Lowell, assisting teachers with some of the children’s domestic issues, including abuse, neglect, and malnutrition. Kwame says he wants to continue working with young people, ideally in a high school setting. Meanwhile, he is interning in Elise Mott’s sixth grade Integrated Studies class and says that teaching “has taught me that organization is key and so is being flexible.” Kwame, besides teaching, organizing diversity activities, and overseeing committees, is coaching all three seasons. Having played soccer while at Fenn, he was “as excited as the boys, maybe more so,” after the varsity team’s first win on the new turf field