Empowering Differences Promoting Awareness

Empowering Differences Promoting Awareness (EDPA) is a primarily student-led organization at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School that examines how we relate to one another and how we can celebrate every kind of person at our School.

EDPA meets every Tuesday night on a volunteer-basis. There are four senior leaders, who, along with the Class Representatives of Student Government, help faculty advisors lead discussions and activities. Discussions are centered around “Hot Topics,” which can range from current events in the news to student-driven questions of identity. The overall goal of such discussions is to create a space in which students feel absolutely heard and supported, as well as to determine various ways we can improve the culture of our School.

We now have several affinity groups that have branched off of EDPA, in order to provide students with a community they might not find in other on-campus groups.

• Young Women’s Alliance
• Black Student Union
• All Asian Alliance
• Spanish and Latinx Student Alliance (SALSA)

Some of the projects EDPA has worked on in the past include displays around the School to honor different heritage months or days of significance, an anonymous question jar for students to submit topics for discussion, a video tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., and flyers celebrating other cultures at the lunch tables in the dining hall. In honor of Asian Heritage Month, for example, the flyers explored different aspects of Lunar New Year and the zodiac.

If you would like to get involved in EDPA or one of our affinity groups, please contact Lauren Williams.