One of the highlights of observing Black History Month this year was the February 23rd visit of Dr. Jarvis Givens, a professor of education and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. A dynamic lecturer who specializes in the history of African American education, Dr. Givens was the third Kenneth E. Whitlock, Jr. Black History Month Speaker, a series that was established in…
In celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on what would have been his 95th birthday, Middlesex welcomed back four alumni on January 15 to share their school and career experiences during a special assembly that morning. As the keynote speaker, former Middlesex Trustee Wanji Walcott ’87 related her educational and professional journey, remembering that she…
A veteran English teacher and novelist, Alex Myers noted that he “frames the whole world in terms of story.” Speaking to the School on October 27 – between Coming Out Day on the 11th and Trans Awareness Week in mid-November – he eloquently told his own story of coming out as transgender right before his senior year in high school.…
While back on campus to attend his first Middlesex Board meeting, new Trustee Freddie Pantoja ’85 addressed the school community on September 29 as this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month speaker, generously sharing his own journey to the School, his experience as a student, and his career path in the pharmaceutical industry. Along the way, he also gave students great advice…
Now an annual autumn event, the School’s Community Life Symposium is an early opportunity for students and faculty to consider, discuss, and address different ways in which Middlesex can be a more welcoming, inclusive place for all its members. This year, on September 23, veteran educator and consultant Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee talked about microaggressions, giving many examples of these…
As a youngster in Indiana, Chris Kang belonged to one of only a few families of color in his town – and like most children, he wanted nothing more than to fit in, “not to be picked on for my slanty eyes and for kids not to make fun of the way my parents spoke.” Once he crossed the threshold…
Having been a Middlesex student only a dozen years ago, Rebecca Hatcher ’12 understood her audience well as she reflected on her own school experience with candor, warmth, and humor during morning assembly on April 15. Speaking after the annual Day of Silence – during which many students and adults remained silent to protest the harmful effects of harassment and…
A year after a new lecture was established to honor Middlesex’s first Black faculty member, the Kenneth E. Whitlock, Jr. Black History Month Speaker Series brought its second guest, educator and author Ric Sheffield, to campus on February 28, 2023. A professor emeritus of sociology and legal studies at Kenyon College, Professor Sheffield reviewed the current traditions that have become…
Gathered on January 16 for the School’s annual commemoration of the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Middlesex community considered some of the inequities that persist today, decades after his death, particularly within the criminal justice system. Illustrating these disparities through telling his personal account of wrongful conviction was guest speaker Kevin Richardson, whose…
Sharing concern about the increasing incidents of anti-Semitism in the United States, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times columnist Bret Stephens ’91 addressed the Middlesex community on November 29, initially reviewing several of the blatant, often violent acts that have occurred in recent years. Among them were the murder of 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018…