This year during Black History Month, we invited speakers from around Atlanta to come to school on Friday afternoons and speak with upper school students about their own stories and how they shed light on and contribute to history as it has been made in our city and country.
 
Melvin Everson, Vice President of Economic Development at Gwinett Technical College (bottom left) began our series and delivered a message about perseverance as he recounted his path into state politics. Donna Lowry, award-winning journalist from Georgia Public Broadcasting (top), an award-winning journalist, discussed her upbringing in North Dakota and told our students about the importance of forming strong relationships and learning to tell one’s own story in an engaging fashion. Finally, Dr. Andra Gillespie, Associate Professor of Political Science at Emory University (bottom right) shared elements of her academic research in political science and demonstrated how she has used her professional work to help answer her most pressing questions about justice and equity in America.
 
We are thankful for how these three talks, taken together, illustrate the way in which the stories of individual people intersect with the wider telling and study of Black History. This is the first year we have dedicated time during the school day to hosting external speakers on this topic, and we hope to learn from and build on this experience as we ornament our curriculum with special contributions on such particular occasions in the future. We are eager to take these and other opportunities to foreground examples of our virtues in practice in the world.