Rowan-Salisbury Schools’ Teacher of the Year Rachel Moysan advises the “tiny but mighty” Diversity Club at East Rowan High School. With the school’s core values of compassion and relationships in mind, the club organized and hosted the Mix-it-Up lunch on Thursday, November 17 in an effort to create a safe and understanding space for students to meet people from different grade levels, peer groups, and cultural backgrounds.

An idea gathered from the Learning for Justice website, “Mix It Up at Lunch Day is an international campaign that encourages students to identify, question and cross social boundaries.” Moysan and her club leaders were hopeful by hosting this lunch, participants would find something in common with someone they did not previously know.

At lunchtime on Thursday, the media center was a buzz with student leaders organizing foods prepared and procured by students, teachers, and administrators. Foods were as diverse as the members of the Diversity Club who were busy rearranging tables across the room to create space conducive for conversations. Participants entered the room with slight apprehension, but were greeted by friendly club members at the check-in table. Those attending the lunch were assigned a table by receiving a little scribble of color on their hand which matched the tablecloths on the tables in the room. As they reluctantly departed from the comfort of their friend groups and assimilated with classmates at color-coded tables, a few awkward minutes took hold. But Moysan had prepared her club for this: Diversity Club members went to all corners of the room, quickly attended to each table, facilitated ice breaker games, and struck up conversations. It wasn’t long before the environment changed to a happy and lively one.

Moysan shared that she was “hopeful that participants would be a little kinder in the halls and display a little more empathy when realizing we are a lot more alike than we are different.” Over the course of the hour-long lunch period, the club’s goals of creating a safe and understanding space for all to just be clearly came to fruition. Much of this has to do with Moysan effortlessly modeling how to be compassionate, and students in her care see this. Junior Abbey Jarem noted, “Mrs Moysan has love every student she teaches.”

Compassion is contagious. Pass it on.

Story by Meredith Abramson for East Rowan High