We are immensely grateful for the time we were given with Charlie and for all he gave to Oakwood. We are also immensely saddened by his passing on August 10th, due to complications from a planned surgery. Oakwood Friends School will hold a memorial followed by a field dedication for Charlie on Saturday September 28th at 2:00PM. Details to follow.

Since tenth grade, I have participated in a competition called Ethics Bowl. Every year high school students gather in teams in New York City to talk about ethical dilemmas and give their opinions on how these dilemmas should be resolved. These dilemmas ask questions such as, is it right for you read your sister’s journal? Or is it ethical for China to have a social credit system?

Writer and journalist Amitava Kumar will open Alumni Weekend 2019 on Friday afternoon, May 17th, with the presentation of the Caroline “Dash” Davis Gleiter Lecture on Social Justice. Now in its 15^th year, this lecture series was established by classmates in memory of Dash Davis Gleiter ’51 in recognition of her work in civil rights and her lifetime of volunteer activities to promote social justice. Kumar will present: “A Human Writes Human Rights: A Novelist’s Report.”

Zach Coto, a Biology PhD candidate at Boston University, will return to Oakwood to present our Annual Herzog Lecture on Friday May 3, 2019.  A graduate of the class of 2010, Zach shared his journey since leaving Oakwood and gave us insight into his upcoming lecture,  “Tiny Brains and Huge Societies: The Evolution of Metabolism in a System of Sterility, Division of Labor, and Collective Intelligence.”

Allison Loggins-Hull, Oakwood class of 2001, will return to campus on Friday, April 5^th, 2019, to present Oakwood’s 6^th annual Arts Presentation to the school community. Allison is a flutist, composer and educator with an active career performing and creating music of multiple genres. Born in Chicago, Illinois, she moved to New York at the age of 10, started playing flute shortly thereafter and was self-taught until she began formal training at the age of 15. She is one half of the critically acclaimed flute duo Flutronix, which was praised by the Wall Street Journal for being able “to redefine the instrument.” MTV recognized Flutronix for “redefining the flute and modernizing its sound by hauling it squarely into the world of popular music.”

Beth Porter ’87, Oakwood alumna and current board member, is a speaker at The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos in Switzerland.  Beth will take part in the 2^nd Annual TransHuman Code Meeting of the Minds Roundtable focusing on “Humans as the Fulcrum to the Internet of Everything".

Students in Humanities Chair Stephen Miller's Postcolonial Studies and Critical Race Theory class had a drop in professor this week. Amitava Kumar, Professor of English on the Helen D Lockwood Chair at Vassar College was kind enough to stop by and engage our students during class. 

Our sophomore class traveled with their faculty advisors to NYC for our annual Youth Service Opportunities Program (YSOP) retreat where they delved into issues of food and housing insecurity and the impact felt by families throughout NY State.