For anyone who has been to a Mercer Island High School game, the drum cadence signals that the Islanders are playing at home. On November 1, the sound filled the gym of West Mercer Elementary School and the chanters were ages five to eleven, but the cadence still signaled that Islanders were at home.
The event was the first in a series of student-led Belonging assemblies, and the cadence was courtesy of the Mercer Island High School Marching Band, invited by the newly-founded group, “We Are Islanders.” Composed of parents and school staff from across the district, they have a clear goal: Through joyful connections and camaraderie, our mission is to cultivate a sense of belonging and unconditional value for students and families that celebrates our diversity and pride through the statement, “We Are Islanders.”
The MI Band Program was an obvious partner, known for creating community, fostering belonging, and cultivating pride rooted in collaboration and joy. As clarinet section leader Julius Perez observed, “The band is so much more than a performance group - it is a community that welcomes everyone and helps every student thrive.”
While we celebrate the differences we all bring to Mercer Island, our shared home connects us; we play in the same parks, walk the same woods, and shop in the same stores. Like all island-dwellers, we cross paths frequently and depend on each other when challenges arise. “We Are Islanders” reinforces this spirit and the connection that comes with it. The group found focus through the vision of the West Mercer PTA Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Mellissa Hill.
When Mellissa moved to Mercer Island from Washington, D.C. in 1988, she went from a community where people assumed she belonged to a new home where she often had to explain her presence. As one of only four or five Black students at Islander Middle School, Mellissa recalls feeling self-conscious and isolated, “I used to wait by the classroom door for lunch to end.” Mellissa waited years to find belonging on MI, for a peer to approach her with openness, warmth and welcome. That year, she worked with other high school students to put on a talent show, finding belonging through collaboration, music and joy. Through commitment and discipline, Mellissa became an MIHS cheerleader, achieving a sense of belonging for herself.
Research shows that “the presence of belonging, specifically school belonging, has powerful long- and
short-term implications for students’ positive psychological and academic outcomes.”
[1] Having a durable sense of belonging insulates kids from the ups and downs of life and lowers the stakes of achievement
culture, separating self-worth from individual accomplishment.
Now raising her son on Mercer Island, Mellissa’s vision was to use DEI as a way to help us understand how belonging to a place, and each other, is worth celebrating separately from achievement. The “We Are Islanders” group works to instill in every child a sense of belonging and islander pride by bringing students together around joy and camaraderie, to tell them that they do not need to prove themselves; they are already home.
If you would like to be a part of “We Are Islanders,” contact Mellissa at diversity@westmercerpta.org.
[1] Allen KA, Gray DL, Baumeister RF, Leary MR. The Need to Belong: a Deep Dive into the Origins, Implications, and Future of a Foundational Construct. Educ Psychol Rev. 2022;34(2):1133-1156. doi: 10.1007/s10648-021-09633-6. Epub 2021 Aug 31. PMID: 34483627; PMCID: PMC8405711.
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