Author: admin1798

Annie Jean-Baptiste ’06, diversity programs manager for Google’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Team, works to diversify the next generation of technology professionals and promote inclusion programs among the tech giant’s 60,000 employees. She returned to Milton as the 2017 Martin Luther King Jr. Day speaker, asking students to honor other people’s perspectives, and sharing her beliefs about what people can do to be more inclusive and follow the life and lessons of Dr. King. Students have the power to effect change when they check their privilege, love harder, take risks, break rules, experience discomfort, and take an empathetic approach to disagreement, Annie says. “At Google we talk about ‘building for all,’ and in order to do that, people with different perspectives and backgrounds need to be at the table, with equal agency to voice opinions and get things done. Research shows that teams with more diversity and deeper inclusion are more innovative and successful. We can extend that to Milton—we need the diversity of experience and backgrounds to foster the creativity and genius that Milton is known...

All history is global history, says Kimberly Cheng, this year’s Hong Kong Distinguished Speaker. Ms. Cheng presented an overview of her research on Jewish refugees living in China during World War II, explaining the confluence of world events that led 20,000 migrants to flee persecution in Europe. Ms. Cheng is a doctoral student in the joint Ph.D. program in Hebrew and Judaic Studies and History at New York University. She was a Penn Teaching Fellow in the history and social sciences department at Milton. She has also previously worked at the Roman Vishniac Archive at the International Center of Photography in New York City and the archives at the History Center of Tompkins County in Ithaca, New York. She holds a Master’s of the Science of Education from the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B. from Cornell University in history, Jewish studies, and German studies. “The study of German Jewish refugees in Shanghai teaches us that history is always global, always transnational. We tend to isolate studies of history, but we cannot think of it as bound by national borders, nor can we think of current events that...

Thirteen-time Paralympic medalist and monoskiing world champion Chris Waddell asked Upper and Middle School students to shift their perspectives of people with disabilities and to push beyond the limits of the labels placed on them. Mr. Waddell became the first paraplegic person to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. He wants his climb, along with his One Revolution Foundation, to improve visibility and opportunities for people with disabilities. Mr. Waddell was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and the Paralympics Hall of Fame. The Dalai Lama honored him as an “Unsung Hero of Compassion.” People Magazine named him one of the “Fifty Most Beautiful People in the World.” Skiing Magazine placed him among the “25 Greatest Skiers in North America.” Middlebury College presented him with a Doctorate in Humane Letters. National Public Radio (NPR) named his 2011 commencement address to Middlebury as one of “The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever.” “Not being able to walk was the worst thing that I could imagine happening, but it was also the most powerful thing that ever happened to me, because I had to get better. I always had to find some sort of solution to every...

Speaking with students as the spring’s Bingham Visiting Writer, award-winning author Jamaica Kincaid urged young writers to throw off the restraints of convention. During her time on campus, which coincided with International Women’s Day, Ms. Kincaid reflected on her career and on womanhood. Born in Antigua, Ms. Kincaid came to the United States at age 16. In her first writing job at the teen magazine Ingénue, Ms. Kincaid interviewed Gloria Steinem about her teenage years. Soon, she joined the staff of The New Yorker. Her works of fiction frequently examine topics of race, gender and sexuality, and colonialism, along with complicated mother-daughter relationships. Ms. Kincaid is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and she teaches at Harvard. Her works include At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, and Mr. Potter. See Now Then, her most recent novel, won the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award in 2014. “When I first came to America, feminism was a topic of great debate. I don’t know why it was resisted. I don’t know why we have to make the case for...