TSA welcomes Reverend MacVean-Brown to Chain Reaction Day
Middle School students joined the high school for the 14th Annual Chain Reaction Day on Wednesday, January 18. This annual event features a diverse array of workshops focusing on celebrating, exploring, and engaging in the spirit of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Enjoy some pictures from the day.
This year’s keynote speaker was The Right Reverend Dr. Shannon MacVean-Brown, Bishop of Vermont. Reverend MacVean-Brown recounted her family’s personal journey and her own circuitous path from teaching to preaching. Finding herself an “outsider” in many situations was difficult at the moment but ultimately instrumental to her personal growth. Curiosity was another catalyst for encouraging her to choose her path. Seeking the answer to questions about history, about her encounters in new social situations, and about places she lived, worked, and visited, she broadened her understanding of people and life.
A self-described introvert, MacVean-Brown nevertheless views herself as an activist, someone who acts upon her convictions. In this light, it’s perhaps not as strange as it might seem for her, an African-American woman Episcopal minister to find herself leading the diocese of one of the whitest Christian denominations in one of the whitest states in the country. “My otherness has helped me to help others understand how to be more welcoming and accepting.”
MacVean-Brown closed her talk with an appreciation for the mission of The Sharon Academy, especially the goal of students awakening “to their immense potential and the difference they can make in the world.” She observed that this goal supports the day’s goal of creating a “chain reaction” of activism. If students can find their own paths by following their curiosity to answer questions that are important to them, they will undoubtedly make a difference in the world by creating their own chain reaction.
As a special closing event, students watched a special video message from Vermont Senator Peter Welch.
The mission of The Sharon Academy is to nurture intelligent, independent, and creative thinking in a small school community, awakening students to their immense potential and the difference they can make in the world
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