Choosing Assembly Speakers

This year, we’ve had more guest speakers during Thursday assemblies. These speakers have ranged from STEM speakers on their careers at NASA and Pixar, to leaders from the East Bay Area’s Rainbow Community Center.

Ricky Lapidus, the Upper School Head, said depending on the week, the reason for choosing a speaker changes. With the School’s reputation of being more humanities-focused, Lapidus brought speakers to promote STEM topics at school. He adds that the Pixar speaker in particular, Danielle Feinberg, was brought in order to help promote women in STEM, and add inclusivity.

Lapidus said that besides academic topics, he wanted to invite people to speak about community and safety subjects. The Rainbow Community Center speakers helped bring awareness and representation to the LGBTQ+ community, and the speakers from Mothers Against Drunk Driving helped to promote safe driving and show the dangers of driving under the influence.

Lapidus says that overall, he just tries to find an interesting topic that students would enjoy. He says that “if there is no pressing matter to address, then the assemblies should be fun and light hearted, like the NASA speaker.”

Lapidus says he found the speakers through the contacts that different teachers and employees at the school have. Some parents have also helped to find speakers. Furthermore, he added that he would welcome student speakers to come and speak to their peers if they would feel comfortable.

Many students have really appreciated the assembly speakers and the insights that they have provided. Seniors Nick Sandford, Amman Kanji, and Devin Batra have said that they enjoyed the speakers at assemblies. Batra went further, saying that he thought the NASA and Pixar speakers specifically were interesting and fun to listen to because of the topics they presented.

Overall, the assembly speakers have done a great job at making assemblies fun and enjoyable for everyone.