DEIB

Suggested Reflection Questions

1. Your role at Burke's

2. When did this opportunity take place?

3. Summary of workshop/ opportunity

4. Goals & Collaborations:

   - What were your big takeaways from your workshop or project?

Role: Assistant for Library Operations & Professional Development Program

The theme of this year’s POCIS 2026 Conference was “Roots to Resilience.” POCIS is a foundation committed to helping schools develop programming that supports faculty, staff, students and families of color.

I attended Elena Aguilar’s Keynote Presentation, “How to Cultivate Resilience in Yourself and Your Communities,” and two additional workshops. After Aguilar’s Keynote, I walked away inspired and equipped with concrete strategies on how to build resilience in myself and others that I plan to incorporate into my personal and professional spheres: 1) Recognize, accept, and feel emotions; 2) Take care of yourself; 3) Be kind to yourself; 4) Connect to people; 5) Look for the (little) bright spots; and 6) Focus on your sphere of control. 

My biggest takeaway from Workshop 1, “Community Cultural Wealth: Toward Belonging & Transformation” with Ester Sihit and Omar Brown, is that POC individuals tend to be…

My first time attending this and it was an excellent blend of affinity space work that POCC used to provide, along with a lot of great sessions on topics such as AI, communication and leadership skills, as well as a range of very special student-performances from varioius Asian cultural heritage groups around San Diego. It was a special opportunity to honor my own family and roots and my mom was able to visit and even hear from the panel speaking about how we can support Arab and Muslim students which was so important in these times. I was able to connect over the conference with many Bay Area leaders as they often arranged our seating by Regions around California and the networking to hear about how schools are addressing AI specifically, was very useful especially as I'm preparing to share our own work on this with the Board next wee…

I attended the Howard Zinn Book Fair– “an annual celebration of The People’s History, past present and future.” This year’s theme was “Fight Supremacy: Actions Against Authoritarianism,” and there were many engaging panels, workshops, and tables. I found the session “Empowering Kids: Social Justice Picture Books” to be most relevant to the work that I do as assistant to the school library. In particular, I can apply what I learned to my goal of incorporating DEIB practices into library displays/read-alouds/collection management. I would definitely recommend the book fair to any and all educators, as it provides bountiful opportunities to reflect on DEIB themes and how they can apply to our work with students. 

Four authors shared picture books that they wrote with various social justice themes (see list below), then went on to discuss why they focus on social justice, how to navigate the “age appropriate” parameters, ways to empower…