Speaking Up and Sharing Silence: GFS Unity Day 2026

During her lecture to the GFS Upper School, award-winning author and illustrator Yuyi Morales explained the impetus for her newest children’s picture book, Little Rebels.

“There were a lot of things happening in the world that made me think about enormous problems. Our world goes through difficult times. But we are only little," she said. "What do you do if the problems are huge, but you are only one little person?”

Little Rebels answers that question with a story about three free-spirited children whose characters are loosely based on Mexican folklore. The kids frame their rebelliousness as imagination, drawing on ancestral wisdom, and taking care of one another and the Earth.  

Morales was a special guest at GFS Unity Day, held on Friday, May 1. As she shared her backstory and a glimpse into her artistic process with students across divisions, her messages of curiosity, hope, and standing together against injustice echoed the theme of 2026 Unity Day: “Speak Up.”

GFS Unity Day is the annual culmination of Unity Week, a series of programming organized by the DEI office to educate the community on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. This year, through Morales’ visits and other queries and activities, students in every division were challenged to use their voices to make changes they want to see in the world.

“We felt this theme was especially important this year, as we know that students can feel overwhelmed by the inequity and oppression that they perceive, both in their own communities and in the broader world,” said Eric Aurelian, DEI Project Manager and Health Education Teacher. “The Unity Week and Unity Day programming served as a reminder that, as individuals, and especially as a collective, students of all ages have the power to speak up.”

An anchor of Unity Day is All-School Meeting for Worship, when the entire school gathers on The Common for shared silent reflection. The queries shared with all divisions prior to the Meeting were:

How do I speak up for others and show I care?
What do I care about enough to change?

Students shared messages of friendship, empathy, and inclusivity, and in an evolution of the tradition, the community closed out the Meeting by singing “Go in Peace” together. 

Before and after the Meeting, each division participated in special Unity Day activities and workshops.

On Friday morning, students from the Early Childhood Center City Campus rode the school bus to Main Campus to spend the day with their classmates. Before the All School Meeting for Worship, the entire EC division took a photo together; after the Meeting, they met in the play yard for a high-energy dance party with the GFS Tiger. 

EC also enjoyed a visit from Yuyi Morales; teachers had been reading Little Rebels to their classes throughout the week. In the Children’s Room of the Friends Free Library, Morales discussed her book and led an art workshop with the students.

Morales also presented at a Lower Schoolers assembly. The focus of this talk was her book, Dreamers, a semi-autobiographical version of her own immigration journey to the United States as a young mother. In the days prior, teachers read the book aloud to students to familiarize them with her story, and led accompanying activities provided by the Lower School DEI Committee.

In Middle School, the faculty wanted to infuse joy into the work that Middle School has done all year building community and effort around DEI. They kicked off Unity Week with an all-division dance—students learned the viral dance challenge “Jerusalema” by Master KG featuring Nomcebo, made popular in 2020. 

Set to a South African Zulu pop song, the dance celebrates coming together and finding a home in community. After some practice in the Dead Graveyard, the entire division performed the dance in unison, amidst plenty of laughter.

The experience embodied an idea Yuyi Morales’ spoke about during her lectures: joy as a means to sustain the spirit during times of struggle and resistance. In sharing a story about an ongoing community protest of tree removal in her town, she said: 

“We weren't only taking care of the trees; we were taking care of each other. As people, we needed to have joy. So we played! We knew our movement would take a long time, so we needed to do it in a way where we stayed joyful. Taking care of each other is what carried us through the journey.”

Upper Schoolers began their day with Seminal Readings in their advisories, framed by the query: How do the spaces that I move through promote or deny a sense of belonging and inclusion? The theme of the readings was “Monuments,” and students examined how national and local monuments can include and exclude populations and how their meanings and symbolism can evolve over time.

After the assembly with Morales, twelfth graders picked up their buddies in the Senior & Lower School Buddies program to walk them to Meeting for Worship. Later, some of the senior buddies gave tours of Hargroves and Wade to Kindergarten students, while others attended first grade recess and reading times.    

May 1 was also College Decision Day, and the seniors celebrated the next steps of their educational journeys with a group photo and food trucks at lunch. 

In the afternoon, each grade embarked on activities together:

The Class of 2026 commenced work on a senior class quilt, which will be on display at graduation, and make repeat appearances at milestone reunions. Community engagement projects included packing hygiene kits, making “Send a Smile” cards for hospital patients, and sandwich-making for the Germantown Community Fridge. 

Sustainability was the focus for the Class of 2027. They trekked out to the Wissahickon, where members of the Upper School Environmental Action Club led activities, such as observational sketching in nature, invasive species removal, eco-poetry, and plant identification.

The Class of 2028 walked over to the Church Lane Community Garden and Penn and Greene Garden to prep garden beds and plant seedlings. They collected and sorted through the many lost and found bins on the GFS campus to organize donations for Cradles to Crayons. The sophomores also worked with Teodora Nedialkova's fifth-grade class on poetry projects (below).

Francine Locke, GFS’ Director of Sustainability, met with the Class of 2029 about how to speak up on environmental issues. The freshman also wrote letters to their future selves (to be opened during their senior year) and walked to nearby Howell Park. There, inspired by learning about artist and environmentalist Andy Goldsworthy, they experimented with nature-based monuments.

“Our goal for these class-specific activities is to both build class unity and identity and really understand and appreciate Germantown as our school’s home, which is part of our mission of ‘embracing the city,’ said Charla Okewole, Director of DEI at GFS. 

As students head into the final month of school, Unity Day serves as a time to connect, both across age groups and within classes, and to remember that—as one student said while sharing a message in Meeting—“At GFS, we all have each others’ backs.”