Hilltop Happenings

-Written by Director, Office of Integrity and Belonging, Meg Allen 

The Salisbury community honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by learning and growing together. We always aim to use Dr. King's work and legacy as a springboard to engage in the critical conversations of our time. In an essay on the purpose of education from 1947, Dr. King wrote, "We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate." Dr. King's idea of true education requiring intelligence and character fits seamlessly with Salisbury's culture and commitment to its students and was the theme of the day. 

We also focused the day's work on bringing our project-based learning to life. This year's MLK Day program included 57 students presenting 22 different projects across three academic departments. Advisory groups got to see presentations from students in Algebra II Honors, Probability and Statistics, Searching for Slavery, The Writer's Journey and AP Language. Participants learned about how to effectively graph data from the Civil Rights era. They learned about how statistics gathered from Pew Research Center, the Federal Reserve, the Census and elsewhere can inform our understanding of inequality and the work we still have to do as a society to achieve Dr. King's goals. They explored untold stories of Black resistance and excellence and their impact on how we understand history. They uncovered the use of rhetorical devices that Dr. King and others used to help energize a movement.

The day capped off with every community member writing down their own moment of "true education", a moment in which they learned and grew in intellect and character at the same time. Those moments became an offering in Chapel at the end of the day, and will ultimately become part of a mural hanging in Centennial.