Before school started this year, Allison Park, founder of Blink Diversity Consulting, led a workshop for Marlborough faculty and staff in the Academic Resource Center about how to address everyday questions involving diversity. Blink Diversity Consulting is a Bay Area organization that specializes in consulting with schools regarding diversity issues.

English Instructor Chris Thompson, who co-chairs the diversity committee with Performing Arts Instructor Mpambo Wina, said that Park’s workshop instructed teachers to learn how to handle situations that can occur in classrooms, such as inappropriate jokes.

“We all have examples of things that have happened in class that, when we thought about it,  we could’ve handled differently,” Thompson said when asked about the reason for hosting the retreat.

Faculty and staff learned how to handle issues like race, religion, and sexual orientation when they come up in class discussions or casual conversations. Schools all over the country have similar programs for their teachers.

Marlborough has an emphasis on acceptance throughout its curriculum. With programs like MC 360 and Face-It, the students become very well informed about the issues that will come up based on diversity. This workshop was a way to include the faculty and staff in the education that every student gets regarding diversity and the issues surrounding it.