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Trevor Magazine Spring 2017-18

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One of Trevor's most popular programs is the Assembly Program, where learning is deepened by meaningful experiences outside the classroom, led by experts in various fields. professional artist and educator, she studied with former Vice President Al Gore and joined his Climate Reality Project—where she learned to present materials based on the 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Ms. Carlo discussed the causes and worldwide effects of climate change and what is being done locally and globally to understand its impact. As part of her dramatic and alarming presentation, she stressed that students are the future; their voices and actions are essential to preserve the earth for future generations. In November, students were treated to a visit by White House correspondent and CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman. Ms. Haberman also worked as a campaign correspondent for all three major NYC newspapers (the New York Times, New York Daily News, and New York Post), covering Donald Trump, the 2016 elections, and Hillary Clinton's re-emergence as a political candidate. Considering Ms. Haberman's close involvement with such high-profile candidates amidst one of the most controversial elections of all time, students assumed her talk would be filled with first-hand anecdotes of her experiences and interactions with them. Instead, she surprised the audience by saying, "Today, I want to hear from you. What do you think about what's happening in the world of politics?" In response to their thoughts and questions, she interweaved relevant stories from her myriad experiences. Carl Wilkens visited the Upper School in December. In the spring of 1990, when he was a humanitarian aid worker, Mr. Wilkens moved his young family to Rwanda. Four years later, extremists took over the government and ordered ordinary citizens to kill the "enemy"—their Tutsi neighbors. Foreign embassies evacuated their citizens; yet, a handful refused to leave, Mr. Wilkens among them. His harrowing, yet hopeful journey recounted incidents of tremendous risk and fierce compassion, in the midst of the senseless slaughtering of 2 2 T R E V O R D AY S C H O O L ■ S P R I N G 2 0 1 7 – 2 0 1 8 Trevor's Assembly Program is coordinated by Kirstin Spielman (who, in addition to being an Upper School Dance and Performing Arts Teacher is the Dean for the Class of 2021). She describes the Assembly Program's mission: "We curate a group of speakers to address the students, based on important current issues and events. We host a wide array of speakers, thus honoring multiple perspectives and the school's diversity. e goals are to share experiences, deepen awareness, and develop interests and ideas to empower our students to become proactive in the world." is year's visitors have included authors, journalists, filmmakers, psychologists, and others, all of whom have expertise in topics that students have studied or read about. From politics, to climate change, to struggling with one's ethnicity or identity, the spectrum of speakers has a great impact on students and faculty; it is also gratifying to observe the impact that the Trevor community has on each speaker. In September, a notable speaker was Matt de la Peña, the Newbery Medal-winning, best-selling author of Mexican Whiteboy, a young adult novel that Upper School students had recently read in English class. Mr. de la Peña spoke to the students about his experience growing up in a biracial family and how basketball became one essential outlet. Following a highly interactive assembly with a student-run Q&A, he held writing workshops for students interested in pursuing creative writing. Susan Burr Carlo was the October speaker. A T R E V O R T R A N S L AT E S upper school 2017–2018 assembly program by Susan Mezo with contributions from Kirstin Spielman and referencing official bios of Carl Wilkens & Kirk Prichard

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