This year, the Marlborough community welcomed two new affinity groups: Fellowship among interfaith traditions in harmony (FAITH) and Transcend.
The first new group, FAITH, seeks to bring together a community of people with diverse religions to celebrate shared humanity and foster connection and understanding. The leaders — Siena Grouf ’25, Sarah ’26, Alene ’26, Sami ’27 and Sarah ’28 — run FAITH along with their advisor and History and Social Sciences Instructor Anna Robinson. The club meets in Robinson’s classroom once a month. The main inspiration for the creation of FAITH was to provide a meaningful space to be able to share aspects of different religions. They hope to build fellowship and community, organize advisory lessons and Pushing Perspectives, expand social justice and service in the community and have an interfaith fair/mixer as well as consistent recognition of religious holidays and school decorations.
“Through events, meaningful dialogue and community service projects, we foster understanding, respect and cooperation among our interfaith community,” Sarah said.
On Dec. 4, FAITH held their FAITHsgiving event, a potluck aimed at community bonding. Students enjoyed sweet treats and learned a little more about each others’ religions. During this event, FAITH held an open discussion for any concerns and ideas regarding activities for meetings.
The second new affinity group, Transcend, is for transgender students and allies, aiming to provide a safe space and education about issues that the transgender community faces. Transcend also hopes to promote inclusivity through meetings and advisory lessons, advocate for gender-neutral language and support local transgender organizations through exposure and fundraising. Transcend was created by group leaders Cody ’25 and Rhonie ’27.
“Transcend is a collective of transgender students and allies who seek to learn how to best support their peers,” Rhonie said. “By advocating for inclusivity at Marlborough and raising awareness for transgender issues, we work to create a welcoming space where students can feel safe and empowered.”
Rhonue felt compelled to co-create this affinity group because of the lack of inclusion and because of issues that directly affect them and their peers. Friedman felt the queergender community was unrecognized and unincluded through language and education at a girls’ school. Last year, Rhonie and Cody reached out to Jenn Wells, the former director of equity and inclusion who resigned last summer, and their advisor Science Instructor J Favorito to ask about starting the first transgender affinity group at Marlborough. They were successful, launching the group this year. Transcend meets in the conference room D111 at lunch every other Monday.
Rhonie and Cody have made significant progress in reaching their goals. A key accomplishment was their Trans Visibility Week celebration on Nov. 13-19. They are working to plan more events in the future. Some of their ideas include a bake sale to support a local organization and a joint advisory lesson with Alliance, the LGBTQIA+ affinity group.
“[I] am happy to report that even just a semester into existence we’ve made a difference and will continue to work towards progress,” Rhonie said.
