On Monday, October 20, 2025, over 900 students and 100 educators from Connecticut middle school and high schools visited Farmington High School (FHS) in order to participate in the Connecticut Association of Schools and Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CAS-CIAC) Empowerment Conference. The day consisted of breakout rooms, a keynote speaker, and planning sessions regarding potential improvements to increase inclusion within the school’s communities. The event was facilitated by the FHS Social Justice Council students, FHS Student Activities Director Chris Loomis, and FHS Principal Russell Crist.
FHS Social Justice Clubs are student-led organizations that focus on fostering inclusion and diversity in an effort to create spaces where student voices are valued and heard. The council consists of student leaders from clubs such as the Indian Student Union, Mental Health Awareness Club, BRAVE, and more. These clubs all aim to raise awareness about, support, and celebrate different social justice issues and causes. The day was facilitated by the Social Justice Council, made up of student leaders from each Social Justice club. The council focused on the intersectionality of their clubs and how they work together for their bigger mission of the importance of diversity and hearing all voices. The students hosted a breakout room at the conference titled ‘Voices for Change’, where they shared their work and how they strive to promote diversity in their school.
FHS Junior Daria Lee is a co-president of the Multicultural Student Union and is on the Social Justice Council. She has been an active participant in Social Justice since her Freshman year. Lee spoke in the ‘Voices for Change’ breakout room about the Multicultural Student Union and the Social Justice Ice Cream Social. When asked about the purpose of the conference, Lee shared her perspective on the purpose of the event.
“The CAS-CIAS conference on student empowerment is an opportunity created by Connecticut Public schools to connect students on issues of inclusion and diversity. During our conference, around 50 schools attended to watch presentations and listen to keynote speakers. It is an extremely powerful and collaborative experience, as all student leaders in attendance worked together to brainstorm and effectuate positive change,” reflected Lee.
FHS administrators Principal Russell Crist and Student Activities Director Chris Loomis worked with students to ensure the event ran smoothly.
“The event was the first of its kind. The hope was to bring students together to expose them to leaders in the community and opportunities to learn and expand their own knowledge and leadership skills,” shared Crist.
“CAS holds multiple conferences throughout the year across Connecticut and the conference at FHS was focused on Student Empowerment with the main goal of amplifying student voice at Middle and High School across CT. It was not only about listening to what students have to say or do, it is also about schools acting on what students see as a priority within each school and community,” said Loomis.
Loomis also shared why collaborative conferences like this are essential to growth. He elaborated on the potential negative consequences of not having collaborative opportunities like this, highlighting the importance and impact of the event.
“If you don’t have conferences like these, many schools can get stuck in doing what they always do versus trying to think outside of the box and learn from other students, schools, and communities. It also gives schools a chance to see if they can work together on any initiatives to build capacity around what they want to do for this school year.”
Students were given the opportunity to meet other student leaders from other schools in order to share ideas for improvement in each school’s social justice efforts. At the end of the day, students from each school were given the opportunity to share one thing they learned from the conference that they plan to implement in their schools. According to Lee, this was her favorite part of the day.
“I loved the open mic commitments at the end of the day. Listening to each student discuss their plans helped give me a full picture of how our Connecticut schools will be positively shaped over the next year. It filled me with a sense of pride in our state and determination to complete our targets,” shared Lee.
