Dear Insight Community,
It has taken us a number of days to gather our thoughts and put something down on paper to share what we are feeling with our Insight community. The country and the world are going through significant turmoil and the most recent events of the past few weeks, culminating in the murder of George Floyd, left us all numb. Sadness does not adequately describe how we are feeling when faced with the reality of what this tragedy says about our society and the challenges that lie ahead. But we do realize that we have a responsibility to our students, their families, and our employees at times such as these.
Since we were founded in 1999, our mission at Insight Education has been to empower our students to thrive in high school and college, but also to prepare for life after their formal education has concluded. One of the most important things we can do is to inculcate in our students a tolerance for and appreciation of differences across our human diaspora and the strength to stand up against injustice. We strongly believe in justice, equality, and humanity. We stand with those fighting for these basic human rights. For too long, society has stayed silent and those unaffected have conveniently looked the other way. It is time to stand up and demand change.
For those students who want to talk to us about what this moment in our history means to them, we will listen intently. For those students who want to create ways to support their fellow human beings, we will encourage them. For those students who want to learn about systemic racism, we are ready to educate and learn alongside you. For those students who are weary, as we are, about the uncertainty of the time we are living in, we will reassure you. We want all members of our Insight community to feel seen, heard, and valued. We are listening and we stand with you in solidarity.
We believe that college isn’t just about content knowledge and pre-professional development, but an opportunity to learn from others’ backgrounds, to gain exposure to new cultures and life experiences, to understand the inequities and imbalances in society, to engage in intellectual discourse, and to learn skills that will be to the benefit of society at large. We encourage our students to seek out opportunities to stretch their imaginations, challenge their long-held beliefs, and to be receptive to new and difficult ideas.
This is an important moment in all of our lives. It is time to stand up and actively work together to dismantle systems that support racism and build a society that better reflects our values. We must do better and that starts with us.
We are committed to doing our part both in our personal lives and in our professional lives, leading Insight forward post-Covid and towards a more just, equitable, and compassionate society.
Black Lives Matter. We are in this together.
Purvi Mody & Ajit Jain
