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The New Voices Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Team aims to create a school culture that promotes an inclusive, diverse, and equitable learning environment where all students feel that they belong and that their experiences and perspectives matter.
We aim to cultivate and integrate our students’ diverse identities into every area of our school culture, providing them with opportunity for creative expression and student voice.
“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.”
Maya Angelou (1928-2014)
Important Dates:
| April 2, 2025 | New Voices Student DEI Meeting |
| April 10, 2025 | New Voices DEI Meeting |
| April 23, 2025 | New Voices Student DEI Meeting |
| April 24, 2025 | D15 Student Equity Congress |
| April , 2025 | D15 Adult Equity Congress |
Celebrating Women’s History
March 2025
Phenomenal Women Contest
In honor of Women’s History Month, New Voices students were invited to participate in a schoolwide Phenomenal Woman Contest. Inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman,” a celebration of womanhood and empowerment, students submitted writing and artwork exploring one of two prompts:
- What does it mean to be a woman?
- Create a piece about a phenomenal woman
This year’s contest got an exceptional response from students across the grades, making it difficult to select a winner. Students submitted artwork in various medians, as well as a variety of creative writing pieces to celebrate the phenomenal women surrounding them.
Student work was judged based on a rubric assessing four criteria: alignment to the task, originality, emotional impact, and artistic merit.
1st Place: Milani R., 802
2nd Place: Alice D., 805
3rd Place: Dakota D., 801
Honorable Mention: Ebba L., 804
Student Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Team
Students have the opportunity to participate in furthering the equity work being done at our school and within District 15 by participating in conversations about current events related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, leadership opportunities, as well as help plan community-wide diversity events.
Mr. Pang, an 8th grade math teacher, is the group advisor.
Our Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team for the 2024-2025 meets twice per month to plan school-wide activities.
This month, the Student DEI team worked on a bulletin board display celebrating women activists, past and present where they highlighted the lives and accomplishments of Malala Yousafzai and Lucretia Mott.
For more information on how your child can join the student diversity, equity, and Inclusion team, speak to Mr Pang in room 311.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Team Updates
The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Team is a collaboration between parents, teachers and administrators. We meet monthly to discuss, identify and implement change within our school community as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
If you are interested in joining the New Voices DEI team, please email:
lkraus2@schools.nyc.gov or dpignataro@schools.nyc.gov
As mentioned last month, the New Voices DEI team is deepening our work through our humanities curriculum. By identifying a problem of practice using the 5 Whys protocol, the team narrowed our focus to assisting teachers in creating and using meaningful curriculum the benefits all students.
Community Building
Bringing together Alumni, Current Students, Family and Staff
High School Alumni Meet-Ups
High School placements were given out in early March, which means it is almost time for our spring High School Alumni meet-ups where we provide opportunities for our current 8th graders to meet, eat and talk with New Voices Alum who attend the High Schools they will be attending in the fall.
Keep your eye out for more information about this community building event!
GSA News
The New Voices Gender and Sexuality Alliance has members across all three grades! GSA is a safe space for students to meet, support each other, and talk about school, life, and current events as well as participate in-service learning projects.
At the end of February, the GSA had a remote visit with Kathleen Barker and Jocardo Ralston from History UnErased. During the visit, students were captivated by the stories of lesser-known figures in LGBTQ history, like William Dorsey Swann, known as the first drag queen, and Civil Rights activist Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray. They also learned about The Battle of the Hundred-in-the-Hands, an 1866 battle between a confederation of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and a detachment of the United States Army, where a two-spirit advisor helped the native Americans win the battle. The students were engaged and had great questions for the presenters.
The GSA continues to be an integral part of our community, allowing students to socialize across grades, make new friends, and discover new interests in a safe space for all students.