6 minute read
Diversity Alliance documentary
Lucas Harrington ’24
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You have probably heard about the new Diversity Alliance documentary Our Truth. It focuses on the Diversity Alliance’s (DA) successes and setbacks throughout the last school year, with flming and production having started in December 2020. Te documentary premiered on Friday, May 28, with over thirty-fve people in attendance. It currently has over 500 views. Te flm is now available on the Our Truth YouTube channel.
The group hopes to shed light on what the DA does beyond the social media presence. Personal experiences of oppression, discrimination, and communal culture make up a core part of the film, as these are the experiences that most motivate the Diversity Alliance mission.
“We can’t pretend that it’s [acts of discrimination, hatred, or oppresision] not happening, because it is,” Fifth Former Diversity Alliance Co-Chair Quinn Luong said.
Sixth Former Diversity Alliance ViceChair Nachikethan Srinivasan said, “We want the student body and the wider Haverford community as a whole to understand what role we [Diversity Alliance] serve in the realm of the upper school and what our goal is: to help make Haverford a just and equitable student environment for everyone by means of education, of dialogue, and of outreach.”
While the documentary’s premiere and release went smoothly, there were many emotional burdens on the cast throughout the production period.
When asked about the hardships while making the documentary, Srinivasan said, “It felt taxing to rely on each other’s support on whether the personal encounters we had gone through were acceptable to include in the final edits. While I was confident, others were somewhat conflicted about what they felt comfortable sharing.”
The difficulty in sharing such personal experiences with the school was echoed throughout the documentary, especially in incidents that involve other students.
The hurdles were not strictly emotional, however.
“It was much more difficult than we had initially expected to make this documentary,” director Russell Yoh ’24 said. “We didn’t realize how much time and effort it would be. I spent a lot of really late nights on calls with other members of the Executive Team trying to get it done in time.”
Fourth Form Diversity Alliance ViceChair Roch Parayre said, “The entire film was difficult because of the time commitment.”
The DA Executive Team expressed the immense difficulty of the production, yet they are all happy with the end result.
“It was often very stressful and tiring,” Yoh said, “but we’re all really proud of how it came together in the end.”
The upper school community has had a largely positive reaction to the documentary, expressing interest in learning more about the DA.
Third Former Tripp Ronon looked forward to the film.
“I had initially seen the announcement on social media, and I thought it was a unique way to show what they’ve done,” Ronon said. “The DA has impacted my daily school life with speakers and events, but I was interested to see what else they did.”
Our Truth explores the often unmentioned aspects of the school community and follows one of the most prominent student groups throughout a challenging school year. Diversity, equity, and inclusion work is currently very popular worldwide, and the Our Truth documentary brings it to Haverford for students to see, as Russell Yoh puts it, “our passion and dedication to this work.”
COURTESY OF DIVERSITY ALLIANCE
The official poster for the Diversity Alliance documentary
sports
Sixth Formers reflect on the lasting impact of Fords athletics after pandemic year
Geordy Holmes ’21 in a 15-11 win against EA on May 20, 2021
Mitav Nayak ’22
Sports are an integral aspect of the Haverford experience: they encourage brotherhood, camaraderie, and discipline—the quintessential qualities Fords pride themselves on.
The spring sports athletes of the class of 2021 are a truly special group who embody these attributes central to the school. Although they faced a number of challenges—no Fifth Form season, new protocols and restrictions, and abrupt changes in schedules—they made the absolute most of every moment they spent on the field, water, or court.
“Our student-athletes have shown a tremendous amount of resilience and grit,” Director of Athletics Mr. Michael Murphy said. “I also think they’ve displayed a great attitude and appreciation.”
For Sixth Former and first-team all-Inter-Ac catcher Eric Genther, the 2021 season was unique in a number of ways.
“In the beginning of the season, it was tough,” Genther said. “We had a new dynamic among the team because a lot of the guys hadn’t played together, and we had a lot of young guys. It was a bit of an adjustment at first, but once we got everyone to really buy-in, we banded together as a group.”
While the team has had success on the field, Genther explained that some of his favorite moments occurred off the field.
“I’m going to miss the camaraderie with the guys and our bus rides after a big win,” Genther said. “Just all those memories that you make as a team—as a high school athlete. It’s something that I think I’ve taken for granted before, and once the season’s over, you realize just how special those moments are.”
Similar to the baseball team, Fords Ultimate was also forced to pivot after last year’s canceled season.
“Last year, we had a lot of potential,” Sixth Form captain Drew Loughnane said. “We had a bunch of seniors who had played soccer, and I’d gotten them to come out and learn the game, but after COVID hit, they all graduated and our team lost a lot of the more athletic kids. So this year, it took a lot of—not only conditioning—but just recruiting and finding younger kids who were willing to run around and learn a sport that a lot of them didn’t know.”
Still, the team adjusted well and managed to have a successful season. Loughnane established that the lessons he learned through ultimate go far beyond the frisbee. He has played ultimate for years outside of school, but he did not join the Fords team until he was a Fourth Former. Right away, he has helped grow the program.
“Being the one who has the most experience on the field has really helped me, especially with my leadership skills by putting me in a position where I’d never been in before—where I’m the one who’s running the practices and doing the drills,” Loughnane said. “Especially stepping in this year where I got to take a pretty big leadership role was something for me and I think for the team that was really nice. We had a team that listened so well and worked so well together.”
Sixth Form Trinity-bound rower Bryson Bernhardt also found his athletics experience impactful.
“Rowing for Haverford changed my life,” Bernhardt said. “It showed me a lot of things I was lacking, like discipline and hard work, and it showed me how dedication to something can result in success. I highly suggest it to anybody who wants to try it because rowing is a good long-term thing for your life . . . A lot of kids who come through the program end up continuing with it, which shows you how much people fall in love with the sport.”
Bernhardt believes the school’s rowing program will continue to flourish moving forward.
“To the juniors, I would say go after it next year—because they’re fast and can legitimately win, they need to really buckle down,” Bernhardt said. “This year, with covid and everything, it kind of set back almost
MR. MICHAEL MURPHY
ZACH GENTHER ’21
DREW LOUGHNANE ’21
N18 PRODUCTIONS
BRYSON BERNHARDT ’21
