The deep equity movement has slowly come across campus, stressing on the importance of equality to provide an inclusive environment to individuals. In the attempts to seeing more diversity among schools, equality for all have been prevalent in several clubs. 

“The deep equity movement is moving slowly,” principal Dan Serrano mentions, but with the continuous growth in clubs on campus, the movement is slowly starting to see a step in the right direction. 

“I think that there are students on campus that do not see themselves in the leadership [role],” teacher Megan Driving Hawk said, “and so its important that somehow they feel seen and heard and valued and respected.” Driving Hawk, who teaches photography on campus, is the leader in charge of the Youth Equity Stewardship (YES) organization: a group that is present at each high school campus in the district. Each school with a group of 10-15 people. 

Stewardship is “restoring the balance and integrity of our natural and cultural communities … [emphasizing] shared power among others,” Driving Hawk describes. 

“It’s why we didn’t want to make it a club,” she explained, noting how a club feels exclusive to others and wishes it to be an open organization that stresses on the importance of broadening options.

“We are going to come up with a system district-wide of selecting students for the future,” Driving Hawk said, to make more individuals become more YES certified within the organization.

“We are absolutely growing diverse every year which is why it is important for deep equity stewardship programs to exist,” Driving Hawk expresses. To demonstrate a movement towards diversity that students will be able to openly see across the school. 

As more and more clubs become open to diversity, the ELLA club stresses on equality is dedicated to helping students adjust to an environment where English is not their first language.

“As a teacher, it should be the number-one thing you do to make sure that what you teach, whether it’s math, science, language, you have to make it accessible to every student, and it has to be impactful to that student,” sponsor of the English Language Learner Assistants (ELLA) club, Norma Rios asserts. The importance of maintaining equality for all it highly important to Rios and underlines the priority to help students have an equal chance in what they are able to do in their work environment. 

“ELLA started as a way to make sure that our english language learners had an opportunity as a way to be involved at Perry in spite of their language barrier,” Rios said. The club aims to help students gain an academic confidence at school and be comfortable in an environment that they can enjoy a different culture that they might not be used to. 

Club member Diana Garza explains the club’s overarching goal and strives to assist individuals in any way. As club members, they hope that by “assimilating [them] more into the culture that they might not know exist here at Perry,” that it will provide experiences to the ELL students themselves.  

“I think [it is important to be] aware and acknowledging different perspectives that there are other cultures and other ways of living,” Rios adds, to express the importance of how the school is slowly becoming more diverse on campus.

As more and more clubs continue to push for equality to all, the campus is pushing in the direction to more diversity and inclusivity at school soon for the future.