The School’s 21st annual Bissell Grogan Symposium took place on January 20 with the theme of Authenticity and Originality Today. The topic was chosen by the symposium committee due to the current environment with artificial intelligence in our world today.

Co-led by Upper School English Teacher Bradley Starr and Librarian Elyse Seltzer, the annual symposium included a total of 10 breakout sessions focused on exploring the central theme from a variety of perspectives.

Seltzer emphasized the value of the annual symposium as a hands-on learning experience, highlighting how its breakout sessions encourage students to engage more deeply with topics that interest them.

“The annual symposium is an opportunity for students to further interact and learn about problems in the world. It gives you a further understanding, and the workshops also help you choose things you want to learn more about,” Seltzer said.

This year’s keynote speaker was educational consultant Eric Hudson, who spoke about how artificial intelligence can replicate aspects of human behavior and raise political, ethical, and personal questions with existing technologies.

Hudson demonstrated examples based on three main pillars—Literacy, Learning, and Ethics—and discussed how artificial intelligence impacts the community’s day-to-day life.

The keynote began with a guessing game in which the audience identified which images were generated by artificial intelligence. The audience then viewed several scenarios about AI use in schools for students and teachers and discussed which examples were acceptable and which were improper.

Rimon Zhao ’27 commented on the interactivity that Hudson brought to the keynote.

“He was very interactive in the way he made us feel included. He spoke with intention, and the activities he had us do were fun,” Zhao said.

After the keynote, students went to their designated breakout sessions, which they had ranked the week before. The workshops centered on the symposium’s theme and included sessions on storytelling, fashion business, and activism, allowing students to dive deeper into topics of interest with workshop leaders.

Ava Bruell ’28 enjoyed the activities of the Critical Vision workshop.

“I really enjoyed how much participation we were introduced to and invited into the conversation, and the activities were more fun than past years. It felt like the topics were mixed with fun activities, similar to the main symposium,” Bruell said.