January 13, 2021
From France to Spain and Willamette Valley to Paso Robles Wine Country, Certified Wine Specialist Wanda Mann ES’89 moderated a panel discussion with Alison Sokol Blosser FR’97 and Maggie Tillman ES’01, we we learned about each alumna’s journey in viticulture and winemaking, their inspiration and what they see for the future.

During the webinar, Wanda led a tasting of Dundee Hills Pinot Noir (Sokol Blosser Winery) and 2017 GSM (Alta Colina Wine)  along with Alison and Maggie. Visit the winery websites to learn where wine may be available nearby. 

September 9, 2020
Meet some of the first women of SYA. Go back with them to Spain and France in the early 70s and hear about their experiences as Schoolboys Abroad admitted its first female students. Moderated by Allison Temple Bacon ES'81, Trustee

"bias" is a film that challenges us to confront our hidden biases and understand what we risk when we follow our gut. Through exposing her own biases, award-winning documentary filmmaker Robin Hauser FR’82 highlights the nature of implicit bias and the grip it holds on our social and professional lives. Joined by Bryan Simmons FR'78 and moderator Trustee Holland Goss Lynch FR'86, this panel discussion will explore how unconscious bias defines relationships, workplaces, our justice system, and technology.

SYA's 50th Anniversary Celebration - July 2015

Lauren is the co-founder and Executive Director of Atlas: DIY, Developing Immigrant Youth, an incubator of education, empowerment and community for undocumented youth and their allies. Lauren’s work focuses on immigrant youth, specifically Chinese immigrants who have been forced into labor. She founded Atlas as a way to confront the outdated model of nonprofits that failed to address her clients’ needs. Creating a safe place allows for affected youth to receive legal services and provides them with the tools to build self-esteem, to self-advocate and to be less vulnerable. In addition to its bricks and mortar facility in Brooklyn, New York, Atlas provides online services to reach a greater population of youth in need. Lauren was an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School and worked in numerous social justice roles before opening Atlas.

Lauren finds inspiration working with people who have been told they are worthless and teaching them to recognize their self-worth. Lauren credits SYA with putting her on the path to global consciousness and a belief in the impossible.

 “One of the things I think we learn at SYA is that there is no one way of being in the world. And if there’s no one way of being in the world, then that means that the possibilities are endless. And if the possibilities are endless, that means that some of the possibilities haven’t even been discovered yet.”

Rhea served as Executive Director of Breakthrough New York (BTNY) and has a decade of experience working with talented students from high-poverty New York City schools. BTNY is a six-year, tuition-free college-access program committed to high-potential, low-income students. BTNY provides after-school tutoring and summer enrichment programs to some of the best and the brightest students, providing them on an ongoing basis with the academic preparation, guidance and mentoring they need to be able to attend selective four-year colleges and break their cycle of poverty. In 2014, 100% of its students attended a four-year college.

Border crossing: for some, it's crossing into different countries, like SYA students do.  For others, it's crossing 125th Street in Harlem. The experience of negotiating new worlds where cultural norms are often implicit and unspoken is not second nature, and we need teachers. Rhea sees many similarities between being an American teenager in Rennes and being a scholarship student at a New York City private school.

 “Given that all of us have had the experience of crossing borders I would submit that we are most uniquely in a position to understand how to guide these border crossers with empathy, and with understanding, because after all we, too, have benefited from those who have decoded the world for us and have been generous with us when we didn’t speak with the fluency of a native.”
 

Rhea is now a consultant helping nonprofits with building clear strategic roadmaps that align with organizational mission.

SYA's 50th Anniversary, July 2015

Surgeon and author of the national best-seller Final Exam; A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality, Pauline puts her practice to print in her popular New York Times column as she examines the relationship between doctor and patient. A frequent lecturer, Pauline conveys a larger medical message by weaving together descriptive stories of her work as a physician with research on challenging issues affecting healthcare, like end-of-life care, access to care and the education and training of future doctors.

Pauline believes that global education is relevant to science and the practice of medicine, as study abroad creates more well-rounded individuals, and more well-rounded individuals end up as more compassionate physicians. Furthermore, Pauline stated, “The mere act of placing oneself wholly into a new culture, of challenging one’s beliefs and perceptions, and of living in a place where it takes work and a good dose of humility to survive, can give young doctors the insight and the courage they need to make medicine better.

“Global education is as much about people and the connections students make as it is about the classes and subjects they are taught. It is about the remarkable bond that develops when individuals from different cultures come together to learn from one another . . . it is about the world of change that can be born of a school year abroad.”

Alice is a Professor of History at Ohio State University. She is a cultural, political, and intellectual historian of Modern France and its Empire with a focus on the twentieth century.