Cranbrook is a PK-12 school with a vibrant boarding component in grades 9-12, allowing the school to provide teachers with the opportunity to live and work on our architecturally famous 319-acre campus. Often living and working in our residence halls, faculty engage students and support their development as members of a shared community. Eagerness to live among students, and to engage them in the evenings and on the weekends as a part of an exciting residential program, is considered significantly beneficial.

The campus also hosts a Graduate Academy of Art, a Science Museum, and an Art Museum, which together comprise the Cranbrook Educational Community.  The art and architecture that shape the campus are designed to complement the surrounding natural environment, making for a truly stunning campus.  The campus is located about 10 miles north of Detroit.  For more, please visit our website: www.cranbrook.edu, and take an aerial tour of campus.

THE CRANBROOK SCHOOLS’ INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND ACCESS (IDEA)

Originally, an All Schools Diversity Committee was formed in August 1994.  The purpose of this committee was to provide leadership and support through resources and programs that make Cranbrook Schools a welcoming, respectful, safe, and healthy place for all who choose to come here. 

The objectives of the original committee were: (1) to promote ethnic, religious, cultural, gender, socio-economic and racial understanding and respect; (2) to work in collaboration with the Director of Community and Multicultural Programs and Heads of each campus to design and support activity and programs in multicultural education; (3) to support the work of parent organizations in their diversity activities; (4) to encourage parents to share resources and provide support to enhance multicultural education and sensitivity; and (5) to serve as a resource for the community in matters of multicultural concerns and to make recommendations regarding such concerns. 

This work continues through specific campus energy which includes students, faculty, administration, board, and parent representatives from the entire school community.  These groups seek diverse membership of people invested in the pursuit of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access that affect the culture and climate of the community. All groups work closely with each campus’s leadership team in identifying and developing programs supportive of Cranbrook’s mission. 

Examples include: ECC/Brookside’s Diversity Committee and DEI Task Force to support professional engagement; Middle Schools’ Diversity Committee, student diversity groups; Upper School IDEA Coordinators, and student affinity/identity groups. All campuses have Wellness Teams. There are vibrant, campus wide Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) seminar cohorts and a cross campus Gender Support Team.

Cranbrook’s Multicultural Awareness Think Tank (MATT) began in 2014 as diversity representatives of Cranbrook parent groups sought to extend their work with the parent community and further their support of campus activity. Now renamed Family Inclusion Network or FIN, our family inclusion network offers programming, learning, and dialogue in support of Cranbrook’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) strategy.  Each year, FIN supports a variety of educational and community enrichment opportunities for our students and their families.  Families have shared professional development programs such as SEED, an internationally renowned program supporting an inclusive curriculum, and the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS)  Parent Series Webinars, an annual 6-part evening series for families to help support children in our schoolhouses.

For more information, contact Carla R. Young, Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access 248.645.3683.