Bending the Arc

A powerful Chapel Talk from Trustee Monique Miles ’95.

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On Friday, October 9, the school community was treated to a virtual chapel talk from Pomfret alumna and board vice-chair Monique Miles '95. During her talk, she discussed the moment we are in nationally, as we battle the impact of Covid-19, climate change, acts of racial violence, and the economic downturn.

"Leaders from the civil rights movement inspired me as a young child and a young adult," she said. "And it feels like, based on this moment our country is in, we have all found ourselves living through a time once again, in which the narrative arc of our country — of this universe — where the everyday actions of individuals, like so many of you listening to my words today, will determine the course of this country and of this world. And if, in the words of Martin Luther King, the arc of the moral universe is long and bends toward justice, it is incumbent upon us to lean in with all of our strength to ensure we apply as much pressure as possible on the arc, so that it bends toward and not away from justice."

Monique is the Vice President of the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund, and the Managing Director of the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C.

One of her key responsibilities is leading a global initiative aimed at supporting thirty-five rural, urban, and tribal communities across the United States, and five communities globally, including communities in India, South Africa, Kenya, Colombia, and Brazil, to bring partners together across systems and sectors to improve education outcomes for the most vulnerable and marginalized young adults in those places.