While this past Tuesday April 28 was Class I’s last day of classes, filled with congratulations and reflective activities, the very next day, April 29, seniors came back together for the long awaited Seminar Day. The Public Issues Board organizes and produces this event every other year, bringing together speakers who may resonate with students’ interests and have impacted the local and global community. When looking through the list of speakers, I was torn between learning something new and gaining a deeper understanding of the subjects that I already cared about. From speeches about fashion to talks around AI, the selection this year—like all other years—was exceptional. In the end, I attended the session with Osaremen Okolo ‘13, former White House policy advisor and Harvard doctoral candidate who discussed her experience in public health, and then John Avlon ’91, a former CNN commentator who talked about American democracy.

Through the first talk with Okolo, I got to hear about her involvement with national emergencies, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to her PhD work in pharmacies across the country. As a Milton alum, she had entered the workforce with the goal of serving her community, a mindset that many of my peers now still feel. Even after her talk, Pati Pogorzelska ’26 and I had more questions. Okolo walked out with us, fielding our questions related to medicine and her own work in D.C., and she even extended the offer to stay in touch. Her kindness and willingness to speak with us further and the genuine passion she held for her work were inspirational. As a senior not really sure about what I want to do moving forward, I appreciated hearing from another person who went through an almost similar process as we are. This experience was a truly unique opportunity that came out of Seminar Day.

My second slot with Avlon was different for me. I haven’t truly taken much interest in being involved in politics, but his talk highlighted not only how systems in democracy themselves work but how we should be involved. He stuck with this idea of how polarized our world, and more specifically the country, has become. He pushed students, and this feels especially important as over 150 of us head to new environments next year, to be accepting of differing perspectives. His talk, and the questions that followed, to me truly suggested that we need to be more involved. This time last year, Hudson Li ‘26, our class rep at the time, said, in encouraging students to run for SGA position, that “what you are not changing, you are choosing.” Avlon, following the same idea, was suggesting that we as young citizens should get involved in our democracy. The audience's engagement throughout the entire speech made it feel as if we as Milton students do agree with this idea of democracy truly being in our hands.

These talks highlighted the increasing importance of removing ourselves from the Milton bubble and the necessity of speaking up. Over my past four years of Milton, I have seen my peers shy away from conflicting conversations or refrain from doing something that they deeply care about due to the fear of failure—two symptoms of our “Milton bubble.” Seminar Day, which bears some resemblance to the Current Events course that Head of School Alixe Callen has mentioned, could be an antidote to these issues by providing a time to reflect about our place in the world.

While I would like to suggest that the Current Events class should be restarted, especially due to the increasing insulation from the real world I feel that Milton lives in, I know that this is not necessarily feasible. However, as I leave Milton with this wonderful Seminar Day as my last true day at Milton, I hope that along with my peers, I can continue having an outward facing view of the world. This day emphasized to me that I have a lot to learn about, whether that be our political situation or global crisis, and hope that we all can continue carrying the importance of Seminar Day which is our role not only as being students but as being students who dare to engage with the world.