CommUNITY: Diversity and Belonging

In addition, our faculty and staff diversity percentage has grown to 17%. 

Beginning in 2020, new lamp post banners adorned the MPCS campus. Each banner was designed by an MPCS high school visual art student. The original artwork embodies the student's interpretation of specific Bible verses, chosen from God's Word about our commUNITY. To keep the MPCS family focused on what truly matters, the school adopted a theme of “Love One Another.” 

The banners are visual reminders on campus of what God has to say about loving all people. Each verse is inclusive of the diverse body of Christ and God's love for every one of us. His instruction is clear, and our call is to obey His commands in our treatment of His children. Special thanks to the MPCS high school visual artists who dedicated time to complete the CommUNITY series banner works of art.

Read the WingTips Campaign for CommUNITY blog and watch the Campaign for CommUNITY chapel to understand what “loving one another” looks like in practice for us as a CommUNITY.

Held bi-annually, our community comes together to celebrate the cultural diversity amongst the families of MPCS. CultureFest includes family-hosted booths representing various countries, with samples of unique foods, crafts, dances, music, and traditions. Students have the opportunity to "travel" with a passport through the countries represented among the exhibits. In addition, many of our grade levels perform cultural songs and dances that reflect the rich diversity that make up our school community.

Ninth-grade English students read Anna Quindlen's Quilt of a Country and John F. Kennedy's The Immigrant Contribution. These essays were combined with a survey on common myths about immigration in America. 

Currently, the largest immigrant population is from Mexico, and students studied the ways in which Hispanics are enriching both the culture and the economy in the U.S. Additionally, students were given the task of identifying key infrastructures in this country built by immigrants. Discussion in class centered around the idea that every citizen is an immigrant.

Each student created a "quilt square" to celebrate his or her own unique identity and culture, and the quilt squares were put together to create a unified quilt. The quilt is a beautiful metaphor for the celebration of both identity and culture; it is a visual representation of Leviticus 19:34.

As part of our school’s participation in National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15), MPCS art students spent many hours studying and emulating Hispanic artists Frida Kahlo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cundo Bermudez, Tarsilla do Amaral, and others. 

Student art pieces representing these artists were displayed in the lobby of the Mulkey Building as a culmination of their studies. Each piece was accompanied by a short bio on the artist, explaining the style and background.
 
In addition to this gallery of art, the students also participated in the 2017 Marietta Chalkfest, where they recreated a masterpiece of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Student artists worked tirelessly with chalk from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on their beautiful rendition. Their remarkable efforts resulted in placing third in the 2017 Marietta Chalkfest!
 
“At MPCS we strive to include all aspects of our school in the Visual Arts work we put forth,” said Jill Hooley, High School Art Teacher. “These pieces encompass what MPCS is all about, celebrating diversity and cultures as well as fellowship amongst our students and community!”
 
National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated each fall, recognizing and highlighting the contributions made by and the importance of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States.

Our U.S. history students attended the annual “Students With King” field trip at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.  It was a powerful morning filled with tours of Ebenezer Baptist Street Church and MLK’s childhood home. The event included a question and answer session with a panel of Civil Rights leaders and family members. Students received a blessing of lessons discovering King’s philosophy of nonviolence and the importance of “Agape Love,” or the love of God operating in the human heart, used as a weapon against evil and injustice. 

MPCS partnered with Prestonwood Academy and Grace Community School (both in Texas) to co-host a national Diversity Roundtable workshop for Christian schools across the country. 

"Christian Schools Together in Conversation" was a two-day event held on the campus of Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas. Speakers for the event helped provide participants with specific plans of establishing and maintaining a diversity program in their school community. These experts in the field provided excellent training and a platform for Christian educators to dialogue and work together in valuing the diversity of the Body of Christ.

We are proud of the part MPCS played in making this event possible and look forward to next year's event.

Members of the CommUNITY Council, as well as many other staff and faculty, will be participating in diversity and professional development seminars, conferences, and webinars during the school year. These include but are not limited to social and emotional training and facilitating critical conversations.

Mount Paran Christian School welcomes international students each year who are interested in joining the MPCS community, culminating in graduation. We open our doors to students who are eager to engage in the school’s programs and who will embrace the opportunities available in academics, athletics, and the arts.

With 10 years of experience working with international students, MPCS international graduates have continued their education at many excellent U.S. colleges and universities, as well as those abroad.  

In Mrs. Coleman’ s Spanish 3 course, students discuss and utilize data collected by the Pew Institute to discover and gain an accurate portrayal of what it means to be Latino in the United States. Students hear varying perspectives from Latinos with different cultural backgrounds to understand the complexity of defining the Latino as a single group while noting the cultural, racial, and linguistic diversity. Students are also able to discuss how Latino culture is impacting mainstream American culture.

In Mrs. Stilz’s “History Through Film” class, students are able to take a look at the various perspectives of history not evident in textbooks alone. Using the 2016 documentary 13th directed by Ava DuVernay, students analyze the 13th Amendment while specifically addressing the clause that states “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Students receive a different look at the meaning, intentions, and effects of the abolishment of slavery from first-hand viewpoints and develop a true revelation of the nation’s history of racial inequality.

Through a collaboration of Kindergarten, fifth-grade Social Studies, and twelfth-grade Honors Government classes, students come together to learn about and celebrate the blessings of immigration, citizenship, ethnic groups, and the challenges that developed during the early 1900s in the United States. During this collaboration, students demonstrate flexibility, collaboration, and risk taking, as well as form relationships across grade levels, race, gender, and ethnic backgrounds.
 

Our eleventh-grade American Literature curriculum challenges our students to consider the topic of race in America. This is accomplished through the study of literature from a variety of diverse perspectives, beginning with the oral traditions of Native Americans to the early slave narratives of Olaudah Equiano to the abolitionist narratives of Frederick Douglass. Female authors and poets are also analyzed, and their gender-specific challenges are explored. The culminating activity is the grade-level analysis of Lorene Cary’s Black Ice and the correlating panel discussions with members of the minority community. The ultimate goal is to foster a “boundary-free” environment, where genuine conversation can occur between people willing to respect one another, honor legitimate inquiry into a challenging topic, and commit to an open-minded willingness to walk in another person’s shoes. From this, growth as people and as Christians is an inevitable outcome.

The ninth-grade Honors English class reads and analyzes Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Students then work in pairs to create infographics - a visual representation conveying complex information clearly and concisely.

“MLK”: A. West and M. Brown

“16^th Street”: E. Osterland and A. Schwab

“Montgomery Bus Boycott”: A. Stubbs and M. Perry