In the virtual environment, it is assumed that clubs would have a hard time being active within our community. Deep Run’s Equity Ambassadors have managed to do the complete opposite by meeting regularly and even  gaining many new members this year. Co-Champion* and history teacher, Jaqueline Dondero, has been in charge of organizing these events.

   “Being virtual is definitely difficult, it’s hard to meet and have everyone join, it’s not like last year with everyone having availability during One Lunch,” Dondero said.

  Even with some challenges, Equity Ambassadors have been able to coordinate and plan projects at Deep Run to try to make the school more equitable and inclusive. These projects are student- run with help from EA organizers, other clubs such as MSU (Minority Student Union), and the PTSO Equity committee. 

   Sophomore Zaara Ahmed contributes to the social media and website project along with fellow members, Aiden Jun and Amy Lu. 

   “I’m currently managing and working on the Equity Ambassadors Instagram page […]. Our main goal is to attract mainly students at Deep Run and Henrico County and use our Instagram page to educate and promote equity in the community,” Ahmed said.

  Ahmed wants people to know that direct messaging is open for anyone to talk and have a conversation about the content that is posted.

Another project in the works is an advice column for students who have dealt with discriminatory actions or need any advice.

“The goal of creating an advice column is to create a safe place for people to share questions, concerns, and experiences involving culture and identity. So far we have written questions that students will likely ask and have discussed as a group how we might answer them,” Sophomore Sarah Zak said.

   Juniors Isis Keneah and Elaf Mohamed Ali are both working to create an Equity Ambassadors Podcast at Deep Run. Along with other members, they are creating the platform to inform people about civil rights activists and educate others about equity and diversity.

   “We are currently planning the outline of the podcast. We are perfecting our plans this year so that next year we will have our content organized,” Keneah said.

   EA is also working on a book club and many members have done additional projects county- wide or independently.

The work that the Equity Ambassadors has done this year has gone above and beyond for the difficult and challenging environment they were given. With almost 40 new members, the Equity Ambassadors were able to make significant progress toward the goal of  making our school less biased and more aware of the diversity .

   “I’m honestly just proud of how many students we have who are willing to do this work and who are excited about bringing these conversations to their peers, parents, and the community as a whole.  A lot of these projects are ongoing and will be things that I think we will continue onto next year (hopefully it’s a more traditional school year by then),” Dondero said.

   The projects help contribute to the county-wide goal of making all high schools in Henrico a more inclusive and welcoming community. The projects being done at Deep Run are only a handful of the many other projects happening within the county to work towards their overall goal.

*Co-Champion is the title of the club sponsor and teacher in charge of running the equity ambassador program at each school.