The mission of SPHERE is to help the member schools to collaborate in becoming and remaining culturally diverse, inclusive, and responsive environments for teaching and learning. To this end, the member schools, individually and collectively, seek to achieve diversity in faculties, staff, and student bodies, to create within each school and among the member schools a climate of respect for differences, to encourage multi-cultural perspectives in curricular and extracurricular programs, and to build bridges between city/suburb and public/private sectors, races, and classes. SPHERE schools do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, age, or ability in the administration of their hiring, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, academic, athletic, or other school-administered programs.