On Wednesday, October 19, the Primary and Lower Schools celebrated Unity Day. Since 2015, Viewpoint’s youngest students have been honoring the commitment to anti-bullying on this day by encouraging kindness, acceptance, and inclusion. Both students and adults wore orange to school on Wednesday to show their solidarity and intention to help everyone feel that they truly belong in our Viewpoint community. 

That morning, the students had a chance to draw or write an “I will…” commitment on footprints that were placed outside of the Primary School, to show how they could join together to take steps and stand tall for unity at Viewpoint School.

October 19 was also Multicultural Day, giving our students the opportunity to honor unity through our multicultural diversity. The students in Primary and Lower Schools were asked to work together with their families to create a collage representing the highly valued aspects of their home cultures, using family photos, magazine cutouts, and internet images, or write words such as countries or regions of origin, holidays, or spoken languages. The students were then asked to return their completed creations by Wednesday, October 26, when they will proudly display the students’ work around the Primary and Lower School campuses for all to enjoy the cultural richness our community has to offer

For the older students, Multicultural Day was hosted by our Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Life, and celebrated with an assembly in the Paul Family Athletic Center featuring the Upper School Jazz Band and Upper School Concert Choir, as well as a 10-student spoken-word presentation about their varying cultures and customs. Viewpoint families come from 75 different countries ranging from Thailand, Russia, Israel, and Peru, so the assembly gave these students a chance to share what is unique about their cultures as well as things – like love of family – that all cultures share.  

Following the assembly, the students gathered on the Upper School Plaza to visit the 10 tables set up by different Upper School student groups to showcase their interests and activities. These included the Black Student Union (BSU), the Latin American Student Association (LASA), Jewish Student Union (JSU), and AAPI groups from China, Korea, India, and the Philippines, plus a Unity Day Table, and a LEGO work table. 

For our students of all ages, it was a great day to celebrate our differences and our similarities and to recommit to treating one another with kindness, acceptance, inclusion, and curiosity.