DEI Alliance: Equity Circle

By: Dhanya Lankalapalli

On September 16th, 2021, the DEI Alliance held its first equity chat circle. The DEI Alliance is an organization that provides high schoolers with a collaborative learning experience through promoting conversations about social issues in our communities. The founder of the DEI Alliance, Dhanya Lankalapalli- a senior at BASIS Peoria, has been working closely with CGEST researchers Rachel Ware, Pranati Guduru, and Dr. Tara Nkrumah in creating activities, discussion topics, and slideshows for these monthly chat circles.

Six enthusiastic high school students from BASIS Peoria attended the first meeting and engaged in a productive discussion about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), sharing their many views on DEI in our society, in general, and in the distinctions between equal opportunity and equal outcome. Following this discussion, we divided into two breakout rooms to complete an activity designed by Dr. Nkrumah.

In this Jamboard activity, students chose a picture that aligned with their understanding of diversity and inclusion, shared their ideas, and discussed various perspectives of how diversity and inclusion look in society and what we can do to celebrate diversity and promote inclusive environments in all aspects of life.

These equity chat circles promote such conversations for a more diverse understanding of our social dynamics and provide high schoolers with a safe space to share their input on current global social issues.

Following the meeting, some of the attendees shared their experience as part of the DEI Alliance:

“I felt that I was in a very welcoming environment. Though small, I was glad to converse with a group of people with such diverse and educated opinions. I like that the meeting was interactive and tackled topics such as inequality and racism.“

- BASIS Peoria Senior

“DEI has been an extremely informational and engaging experience. Thought-provoking questions such as the differences in impact between equality vs. equity, how we as a society can achieve social justice, and how each individual should empower diversity in society are all discussed, leaving attendees with a transformed mindset after each meeting. I have really enjoyed how interactive the sessions are - the conversational nature of the program, rather than a typical lecture-based format, provides more room for collaboration and development of ideas. The DEI Alliance is truly special due to its ability to unite students of various backgrounds, having them discuss amongst each other and brainstorm on how we can improve our world.”

- BASIS Peoria Junior

“I enjoyed the meeting very much. I liked the conversational nature and I felt like everyone's perspective was heard and appreciated. It was awesome to meet Dr. Nkrumah, too!”

- BASIS Peoria Senior

The DEI Alliance hopes to gain more momentum and welcome high schoolers into these chat circles to collaborate on multifaceted solutions for social inequities present in our world today.

Written by:

Dhanya Lankalapalli

DEI Alliance Founder

BASIS Peoria Senior