W.E.B. Du Bois once wrote, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” 

In 2023, more than two dozen Pomfret students took that message to heart when they helped establish the Gary Ralls NAACP Youth Council of the Windham/Willimantic Branch of the NAACP.

This year, the Council's leadership received the W.E.B. Du Bois Civil Rights Advocacy Award, a distinction that affirms the significance and impact of their work in establishing a powerful platform for youth advocacy. The recipients include Eddie King’oo ’26, who serves as president, Joshua Leslie ’27, who serves as second vice president, and Grace Onymakanor ’27, who serves as treasurer.

Pomfret students have consistently served in primary leadership roles since the chapter’s founding. But what began largely as a Pomfret-led initiative has quickly grown into a collaborative, multi-school organization committed to advancing equity, civic responsibility, and social justice.

In addition to the award, the Council also received an NAACP grant. Through the grant, students will gain access to leadership development, advocacy training, and resources to design and implement projects addressing real-world issues affecting their peers and broader communities.

"Our students are change makers," says Pomfret's Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Dr. Cory McCarter, who also serves as co-advisor of the Gary Ralls NAACP Youth Council. "Leadership is not their aspiration, it is their practice. They are the change they wish to see. We are proud of them."

Second Vice President Joshua Leslie (mentioned above) is also the recipient of this year's Princeton Prize in Race Relations for the Connecticut region, which included a $2,500 award and an invitation to attend a two-day Symposium on Race at Princeton University.

In its announcement, the prize committee wrote, "We recognize how consistently and persistently you create, organize, seek practical accessible solutions, and then, innovate to lay infrastructure required to sustain them... Your approach to advance racial equity is a walking embodiment of The Princeton Prize's mission and vision."

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