The School’s 20th annual Bissell Grogan Humanities Symposium, with the theme of “Building Community and Civil Discourse”, took place on January 21st.

Co-led by Upper School English Teacher Bradley Starr and Director of US Library Elyse Seltzer, the Symposium committee made the decision for this theme in consideration of the increasing importance of engagement and civil discourse in the current climate.

Starr explained the benefits of the symposium on School and the students.  

“I think that having the opportunity to bring in people who are expert in their fields to talk to students about issues that are ones that are very relevant in the world we live in, I think is maybe like the big picture, like biggest benefit as I see it.” 

As usual, this year’s Symposium began with a keynote speech, featuring speaker Jason Craige Harris–a renowned researcher, educator, and storyteller.

Harris was previously the director of diversity and inclusion at a NYC independent school, and is currently working as a facilitator and conflict mediator. Harris–like he introduced in both the keynote speech and his workshop–cares deeply about education, making time to travel to schools around the country to leave his impact.

His speech, titled “Building Bridges: 10 Skills for Better Conversations Across Differences”, teaches audiences the secret to having difficult conversations.

Harris’ keynote began with interactive questions as he asked the audience to raise their hands while asking them questions about shared experiences. 

Harris continued his speech by delving into the art of conversations and the most essential values while communicating with others: humility, curiosity, and empathy.

Students are prompted to reflect on improving their conversational skills by examining examples and considering ways to make their speeches more empathetic. 

Students also react positively to the keynote speaker. 

“I had a lot of fun listening,” Aryaa Mutha ‘26 said. “I wouldn’t have thought so thoroughly about this topic before.”

Sebastian Velastegui ‘26 agrees.

“I really liked the keynote speaker because he’s very interactive–constantly making sure that everyone is engaged and paying attention.”

“He seems genuinely excited to be teaching us about how to have difficult discussions”, Velastegui said. “It was really nice to hear about how you can talk about controversial issues with others without having a conflict.”

Student Body President Stephanie Altschul ’25 also talked about the value of the various options of workshops offered to students.  

“I think it’s great to be able to build community because so rarely are we in classes with all the people that we get to be in workshops with. But to be put in a room, even for just an hour, with the same group of people after hearing the same speech, it really does, in my opinion, build a level of community.”  

The workshops are offered to students grades 9-12 after a keynote address. These workshops give students an opportunity to indulge in topics related to civil discourse. Supreme Court teacher Ken Levine led a workshop focusing on freedom of speech and the First Amendment. 

“I think that symposium helps prepare the students for the next level of education because it shows you kind of what you need to do to be able to listen and learn and open your mind to topics when you get from high school into college and then afterwards.”  

Altschul shares her opinion about the relation to the topic and the current political world.   

“I think especially this time with the election and all these big debates happening and partisan ideas being put up against each other in the world right now, it’s good to be able to have productive discussion, but also empathetic discussion,” Altschul said. “And it can be so easy to just think about why we’re right without considering the other side at all.”