The Connections Conference is a social justice event for high school and middle school students, teachers, and administrators where we explore issues of bias, privilege, and discrimination. Through immersive, hands-on workshops, together we explore how to support each other and make our communities better for everyone. Last year we had over 700 students, teachers, and school staff join us from all over New England.

Connections Conference 2024
Friday, March 15, 2024
Sutton High School in Sutton, MA

Our theme this year is
“Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers:
Creating Just and Equitable Schools for Everyone.”

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS​
​

CYNTHIA LEITICH SMITH
​AWARD-WINNING INDIGENOUS ​AUTHOR

Cynthia Leitich Smith is a NSK Neustadt Laureate, the 2024 Southern Mississippi Medallion Winner, and a New York Times bestselling author of books for young readers, including HEARTS UNBROKEN, which won the American Indian Library Association’s Youth Literature Award. Her debut tween novel RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME was named one of the 30 Most Influential Children’s Books of All Time by Book Riot, which also listed her among 10 Must-Read Native American Authors. Her recent releases include the middle grade anthology ANCESTOR APPROVED: INTERTRIBAL STORIES FOR KIDS, winner of the Reading of the West Book Award for Young Readers and an ALA Notable Book, and the novel SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA, which received six starred reviews (including one for the audio edition). Both books were named to numerous “best of the year” lists.

Her 2023 release is the YA novel HARVEST HOUSE, an Indigenous ghost mystery, which has so far received three starred reviews. She looks forward to the release of MISSION ONE: THE VICE PRINCIPAL PROBLEM (BLUE STARS #1), co-authored by Kekla Magoon, illustrated by Molly Murakami (Candlewick, 2024), which is a Junior Library Guild selection.
​
Cynthia is also the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books and was the inaugural Katherine Paterson Inaugural Endowed Chair on the faculty of the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cynthia is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Austin, Texas.​

​​KAI SHAPPLEY
ACTRESS, AUTHOR, PUBLIC SPEAKER, AND ACTIVIST

Kai Shappley (Her/She) loves her family, her friends, her dog,
her cat, and everything Dolly Parton. She has a wide variety of
aspirations for the future ranging from owning more cats than her mother
currently allows to being elected President in 2048.
 
Kai is transgender and has been under attack from the Texas legislature
since she was in kindergarten. Her testimonies before legislative
committees considering bad legislative ideas designed to bully
transgender kids have repeatedly gone viral and she has won numerous
awards, including being a finalist for Time Magazine’s kid of the year in
2021. A documentary about her journey, Trans in America: Texas Strong,
won an Emmy for outstanding short documentary and a new full length
documentary that chronicles her story, Mama Bears, recently premiered
on PBS. She has been a guest star on the Netflix series The Babysitters
Club and she released her first book in May of 2023, Joy to the World, a
middle school novel about a tween girl living her life to the fullest
centering on the richness and breadth of trans experience published by
Harper Collins. Kai has been interviewed regularly by national media
including Vice, The Today Show, Teen Vogue and Good Housekeeping.
Her open letter to “Adults in Charge” was published in Elle Magazine
March 8, 2022.

​Partnering sponsor of this year's event