Welcoming New Families to Brearley

Each year, Brearley opens its doors and welcomes a new group of families to its community by having them contribute to a community-sourced poem. Inspired by an NPR piece from 2019, we ask new families to describe where they’re from in free verse, responding to the prompt, “I am from…” or “I was born….” 

This year, nearly 100 parents attended the Performance Hall event to get to know one another and learn about the breadth and depth of our diverse community. Coy Dailey, director of the Office of Equity and Community Engagement, said he hoped that years from now, these parents would remember the first time they met other new families and look back on this night as the start of an incredible and rewarding adventure. 

Head of School Jenny Rao, herself new to Brearley, kicked off the evening with a poem of her own, describing her life growing up as the only child of a Mexican mother and British father, and how her culture has impacted her as an adult.

“I am from Mexico, a place where food and music hold people together for hours on end,” she wrote. “I am from a home with a fearless mom, who encouraged me to believe that ideals are possible and worth working for.”

After enjoying some nibbles and refreshments, parents were grouped by their daughter’s grade and then asked to brainstorm ideas for their own poem. They sat in small groups, introduced themselves, and then took pen to paper to describe their own backgrounds. The result? A wonderfully eclectic mosaic of stories that reflects the beautiful collection of backgrounds and experiences at Brearley.

A sampling of the poems is below:

I am from Istanbul, where the East and the West flirt for a millennium.
I am from a father who saw my potential even when I doubted myself.
I am from words—spoken, whispered, written, and believed.
I am from a mother who broke the law.
I am from the smell of homemade pesto.
I am from the places I’ve left behind.
I am from a strong belief in the Oxford comma.
I am a child of Italian immigrants in a family where yelling is talking.
I am from a land with more languages than I can speak and more cultures than I know.
I am from where the blue sky touches the ocean.
I am from Pakistan, land of mango trees and cricket fields.
I am from a big, loving family.
We are all now Brearley Family.