Mario Johonson Honored with Celebrating Black Excellence Award
Congratulations to Director of Student Wellbeing and Human Development Mario Johonson on being honored with the City of Santa Monica 2022 Celebrating Black Excellence Community Award. The City’s Black History Month Committee presents the Celebrating Black Excellence Awards annually to recognize Black leaders for their outstanding service. Mario was honored at the virtual awards ceremony on February 24.
Mario has been at New Roads since its early years and has made a profound impact on each graduating class. As Director of Student Wellness and Human Development, Mario is developing an institutional approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion that reflects New Roads’ core values - love, respect, compassion, and kindness - and our fundamental assumptions about learning, rooted in neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology. Mario also moderates our groundbreaking Critical Conversations Speaker Series discussions; past guests include Isabel Wilkerson, Professor Ibrahim X. Kendi and Van Jones.
New Roads School is a college preparatory K-12 private independent school in Santa Monica, CA, serving over 515 elementary school, middle school and high school children from the greater Los Angeles area. New Roads School provides an inspired educational program from which an authentically diverse student population, mirroring the rich diversity of Los Angeles, develops a personal dedication to learning, a respect for independent thinking, and an expanding curiosity about the world and its people.
NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS New Roads School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.