Along with André Robert Lee, Kia Lilly was one of the few minority students at Germantown Friends School. She embraced the opportunity and gained new appreciation for different cultures and ways of thinking. Today, a professor at the University of North Carolina, Dr. Lilly Caldwell passes on the lessons of history and experience she learned to the next generation.
—
I attended a private Montessori school for part of my elementary education and attended Germantown Friends School (GFS) for the tenth grade through twelfth grade, graduating in 1988. I received a community scholarship, which covered my tuition and allowed me to attend GFS. This was a tremendous help, since I was from a single-parent family.
Overall, my experiences at GFS were very positive, although I did experience some culture shock as an African-American student. I was active in the Minority Students Alliance and served as a leader of the organization. As a somewhat non-traditional prep school, GFS had a very liberal orientation and encouraged students to fully develop as individuals, as opposed to fitting into a mold. I think one of the greatest benefits of my GFS education was that it helped me to be a critical and independent thinker. Both of these qualities served me well as a college student and continue be an integral part of who I am today. The small classes and individual attention that I received at GFS were also invaluable.
During my senior year in high school, I traveled to Puerto Rico with my Spanish class. That trip was my first opportunity to travel outside of the mainland United States and it solidified my interest in Latin American cultures. As an undergraduate at Princeton University, I pursued a major in Latin American Literature and have been involved with Latin American Studies since that time. I earned a master’s degree in Latin American Studies and a doctorate in Social Anthropology, both at the University of Texas at Austin.
I am currently a faculty member in African-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My research focuses on African-descendant populations in Latin America, with an emphasis on Afro-Brazilian women’s experiences and issues of race in Brazil. Today, both my son and daughter attend an independent school.
My own prep school experiences are proving valuable as my family navigates the positive and negative aspects of my children’s experiences at an independent school. As a prep school graduate, I am very aware of the importance of my children being connected to the African-American community, as well as to our history and culture, and not feeling as if they are the “only ones” in the various settings in which they find themselves.
- Kia Lilly Caldwell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of African & Afro-American Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
