Our Philosophy

Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion works to ensure that every member of our school can participate fully in the Gulliver experience. The effort to be equitable, inclusive, and just is an enduring commitment and a never-ending process.

Longtime Gulliver Director Marian Krutulis established our mission statement: “To create an academic community devoted to educational excellence, with a personal touch, that fulfills each student’s potential.” Among the values that lead to educational excellence and fulfillment of student potential are respect, cooperation, friendship, caring, courage, and diversity. At Gulliver, we engage diversity in the broadest sense, knowing our community is comprised of students and adults who have a wide variety of backgrounds, skills, characteristics, and social identities. We pay particular attention to the ways that status, privilege, opportunity, and access to resources systemically correlate with social identities, and we work to eliminate disparities. Our focus on diversity involves all members of the Gulliver community, including individuals from majority and minority groups.

Diversity enhances our capacity for academic and professional excellence, ensuring that our graduates are able to demonstrate “future-ready skills” like communication, collaboration, and cultural competency in an increasingly complex, interconnected, and global society. We continue to deepen our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion because it embodies the values and ideas about teaching, learning, justice, and community that Gulliver has always held dear.

Students walking near the Center for Student Life

Principles and Beliefs

Gulliver demonstrates a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by adhering to the following principles and beliefs:

  • We work actively to counter systemic disparities in status, privilege, and opportunity corresponding with factors including, but not exclusively limited to, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, ability, and socioeconomic status.
  • Through thoughtful exploration of social issues and how identity impacts each of our lives, we work to develop cultural literacy and an anti-bias identity among our students, faculty, staff, administrators, and parents.
  • We align our operational and pedagogical practices behind the idea that every student, irrespective of demographic background, can achieve educational excellence.
  • We work to minimize or eliminate any opportunity and achievement gaps across student demographic groups.
  • We teach content that intentionally includes representation from a broad cross-section of our community and the broader society.


How we Make Inclusion a Reality

A key goal of our strategic planning is to invest in and promote diversity, inclusion, and affordability at Gulliver. The school has allocated financial resources, time, and institutional focus to fulfill this commitment.

In order to build cultural competency and affirm the diverse identities in our community, many of our employees, trustees, and parents have participated in multiple learning sessions we have hosted with internationally recognized diversity practitioners.

A wide array of educational opportunities and supports are embedded in the academic, athletic, and activities programs, in order to ensure that all of our students can thrive, and we provide financial aid to make Gulliver accessible.

We are reviewing our curricula, source materials, and media resources, with the goal of ensuring that multiple voices and perspectives are represented.

Gulliver’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is visible through the many activities and accomplishments promoted by our school publications. For example, we provide students with ongoing access to sustained partnership opportunities outside of the school, in order to engage the Miami community while serving others, and robust opportunities exist for students to celebrate the proud cultures and heritages that make up our vibrant community.

Young students playing music
Three asian female students

We have created a multi-layer organizational structure to ensure our work in diversity, equity, and inclusion is reflected in all facets of the Gulliver experience. These structures guide our current initiatives and push us to continually develop thoughtful, impactful programming.

The Board of Trustees Diversity Committee reviews and plans strategic initiatives and ensures adequate resources are provided for the work.

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