Students Adjust to the Multiculturalism of ASP

By SARAH EGNER

The 269 students gathered in Concord, NH for the summer to make St. Paul’s School their 5-week home come from 82 different high schools, all of which have their own culture, traditions and demographic make-ups. For most of us, the ASP experience is very different from what it’s like attending high school for those 180 long school year days. So much distinguishes the St. Paul’s ASP experience from what we have at home. Off the top of our heads, we think about the students, mostly brand new people. We think about living with those people in dorms. We think about eating every meal together and playing sports. But something else that few people think about is the racial diversity on campus.

Among all of the many things that are different about all of our respective public schools, the demographic make-up of other schools racially is not usually among our first points of interest. According to the 2010 census, New Hampshire is 94% Caucasian, whereas the nation as a whole is 78% white. For the first time in our nation’s history, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the U.S. This fact is not evident in many New Hampshire schools, but exceptions are certainly existent. Although diversity is typically thought of as a good thing, the lack in diversity of the type of student the ASP represents is beneficial for the type of learning environment it promotes.

My own school, Hillsboro-Deering High, is exceptionally small. Located about 30 minutes west of Concord, the town of Hillsboro has about 5000 people and is very rural. Each graduating class is approximately 100 students, and there is little to no racial diversity whatsoever. Coming to SPS for me increased the amount of different race in my learning community, something noticed by other students that I encountered.

Students who come from larger school communities also saw a similar change in the racial diversity. ASP student Meredith Marshall who goes to Pembroke Academy found it “more diverse here” at St. Paul’s. “There are more people at my school, so the ratios are different. Even though there might be more racially diverse people at my school, the percentage of people of different race is higher here” explains Marshall. Despite the fact that this difference is evident, Marshall states that “I take note of it but I don’t really think about it that much.”

I was not especially surprised about the change in ethnic diversity I encountered here at ASP. What did surprise me however was the schools that do not experience the same consistently white European demographic. The Manchester School District is one of the only places in the state where more multiculturalism is seen. Donovan Murby an ASP student from Manchester Memorial High School explains that it is “easy to see a ton of variety from different backgrounds in Manchester.” Aidan Connell of Manchester Central attributes this to the fact that “Manchester in general is a hub for immigration.” Connell has several non-English speaking classmates, especially from India and Nepal. Despite these great differences between their school diversity and the little diversity they find at ASP, neither student paid much attention to the racial diversity. It is “Not something I really notice, if you think about it you can see a difference” explains Murby.