ELMLE Mondays for the Middle: Celebrating and Supporting the LGBTQ+ Community in our Schools

To join any of the ELMLE highlighted speaker events and job alike sessions, you must REGISTER FIRST for #ELMLEVirtual at bit.ly/Register_ELMLE. Please note that you only need to register once in order to access the year-long series.

The Sexuality and Gender Awareness Club (SAGA) advisors of Zurich International School will lead a three part session Celebrating and Supporting the LGBTQ+ Community in our Schools on Monday September 28 (part 1) and October 12 (part 2) and November 23 (part 3).

Rachel Somers, Kaitlyn Somers, Gary Brennan and Alysha Heller are middle school teachers at Zurich International School. After the ZIS Upper School campus had a student initiative to start a sexualtiy and gender awareness club to break the silence around sexual orientation and gender identity diversity on their campus, the middle school students quickly followed suit. For the past three years, we have held weekly SAGA meetings with an enthusiastic and inspiring group of 10-14 year olds. We have organized SAGA special events on our campus and the annual international school SAGA conference. Our students’ worldview and empathy make us excited to go to work daily.

In our sessions, we will share our experience creating and leading the first sexuality and gender awareness group at our middle school and hosting the first annual international middle school sexuality and gender awareness conference. We will discuss a variety of topics including: promoting inclusive practices across the school's systems and practices, building student and staff awareness and starting a club while building student leadership for success. Over the course of the three online sessions, we will offer opportunities to share experiences to improve LGBTQ+ inclusive practices within our schools and consider the intersectionality of a variety of social justice initiatives. We have realized this work is better when we work together as an international community. We are looking forward to sharing our experiences and learning from all of you.

After registering for #ELMLEVirtual, you will receive an email with info for the Whova App. All details for joining the session are listed in the community section of the app. Use this link to RSVP so that we know you're interested in this event. You'll also be able to add this session directly to your calendar!