On February 14, famed New York Times journalist Bret Stephens spoke with students, faculty, and guests in Rousmaniere Hall about his life and work. Mr. Stephens—one of the premiere conservative journalists of our time—has been an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times since 2017, after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he served as Deputy Editorial Page Editor and, for 11 years, a foreign affairs columnist. At The Wall Street Journal, he most notably wrote “Global View,” the foreign-affairs column, for which he was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. Prior to that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, a position he assumed in 2002 at age 28. He has reported from around the globe and interviewed scores of world leaders. Along with journalist Gail Collins, Mr. Stephens co-writes a popular New York Times column titled “The Conversation,” which contributes thoughtful, balanced commentary on American politics.

Mr. Stephens opened the Hall by mentioning Roxbury Latin alumnus and fellow journalist James Kirchick, Class of 2002. He called James one of the “greatest journalists working today” and passed along a message of thanks from James to teachers Stewart Thomsen and Mo Randall. Mr. Stephens then continued by offering “vignettes from [his] life, to hopefully inspire some [students] to take up journalism as a career.” 

He began with his childhood, talking about his youth as a Jewish-American being raised in Mexico City. He described himself as an “insider-outsider” as a child, and having that “hyphenated” identity has, he said, perhaps been the richest feature of his life. Mr. Stephens said he believes that “true thoughtfulness lies in the hyphen.” He brought this hyphenated identity into his teenage years, when at 13 he realized he would need to move to the United States for his high school education. He attended Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he and his peers embraced “constructive rebellion”—starting a second, more irreverent student newspaper and pulling pranks with classmates.

After Middlesex, Mr. Stephens studied at the University of Chicago, where he emerged a better thinker from so many “intellectually humbling” experiences. He then took the audience through the up-and-downs of his career: from his first job at a magazine right out of college—which, he describes, ended in humiliating fashion—to The Wall Street Journal and the prestigious role running The Jerusalem Post at the age of 28. When he returned to the WSJ and won a Pulitzer in 2013, he reflected back on how his earlier work experiences shaped who he had become. He shared that if you have enough time to reflect on earlier disappointments—even humiliations—you will likely become thankful for what they teach you down the road. 

Mr. Stephens concluded by sharing the reason behind his move to The New York Times in 2017. The move was sparked by his “Never Trump” attitude during the 2016 election cycle. As a traditional conservative, he viewed the rise and right-leaning media’s coverage of President Donald Trump as the “antithesis of a healthy conservative movement in America.” This brought him to the NYT, and he said he knew it would be “okay to be a contrarian.” In his role, he embraces being a dissenting voice, and he feels the only way to “disagree well is to understand well.”

After the Hall, Mr. Stephens spent first period speaking with members of Tripod, answering questions from them and other faculty and students who wanted to continue the conversation. Topics ranged from press freedom in authoritarian states to btc casino regulation and whether social media has made political journalism harder to do well.

1月31日,获奖的景观建筑师凯特-奥夫(Kate Orff)--SCAPE的创始负责人和合伙人--发表了RL的年度怀纳讲座。这个系列讲座是由1943级的杰瑞-怀纳和他的妹妹伊丽莎白-怀纳-马克建立的,是对他们的父亲鲁道夫-怀纳(1912级)的活纪念。学校很荣幸地邀请了杰里'43和他的家庭成员出席奥夫女士的演讲。

奥夫女士的公司。 SCAPE通过结合再生生活基础设施和新形式的公共空间，应对全球挑战，如气候变化和环境正义。A 纽约客一篇文章将奥夫女士描述为 "处于一种新兴的气候复原力方法的最前沿，该方法认为我们应该在建筑时 与自然，而不仅仅是 在自然。它的指导原则是，"灰色基础设施"--现代社会用来遏制和控制水的堤坝、大坝和海堤--往往是不够的，有时甚至是破坏性的。相比之下，绿色基础设施包括战略性地部署湿地、沙丘、红树林和珊瑚礁，以减少灾难性的洪水和海岸侵蚀的威胁，同时也使土地恢复活力。这种精心设计的'第二自然'的想法，可能是我们的第二次机会。"

在整个上午的大厅里，奥夫女士提供了她的公司如何与自然互动的例子，作为一个设计问题。她的公司正通过与市政当局合作，在历史上一直是混凝土区的地方建设公园、广场和其他生态系统，来 "修补景观"，以恢复城市生态。项目包括在路易斯维尔、波士顿和纽约市的工作。在所有这些例子中，奥夫女士强调，任何城市景观现在都是一个行动和合作思考的模板。

奥夫女士最引人注目的项目是 "十亿牡蛎项目"，这是一个非营利性倡议，旨在将牡蛎大量重新引入纽约市的水道，作为其沿海基础设施计划的一个重要组成部分。她分享了将牡蛎引入港口如何开始让纽约为其被破坏的生态系统按下 "重启键"，并在对抗气候变化和侵蚀方面提供实际支持。

奥夫女士以领导复杂的、创造性的、合作性的工作进程而闻名，推动了广泛的环境和社会特权。2017年，她被授予著名的麦克阿瑟基金会 "天才奖 "奖学金，这是在景观建筑领域的第一个奖项。2019年，她被提升为美国景观设计师协会理事会成员--这是对在美国执业的景观设计师授予的最高荣誉。

在带领听众了解了她的职业道路和这些例子之后，奥夫女士在演讲的最后解释了她在SCAPE的工作是如何涉及许多主题和行业的，包括科学、设计、艺术、工程、法律、政府和商业。然后她接受了热心学生的几个问题，包括对她的设计过程和客户的询问。

我们很荣幸在1月17日与我们一起庆祝小马丁-路德-金博士的生命和遗产--布兰登-特里博士和约书亚-班尼特博士，他们为我们阐明了MLK的爱和非暴力哲学的广度、深度和力量，作为带来有意义的行动和变化的手段。

一年一度的MLK纪念馆以诵读《圣经》开始。 弥赛亚书6和泰勒-杜阿尔特（Tyler Duarte）诵读MLK的《伯明翰监狱来信》节选。 醒来吧，我的理智和 提起每一个声音，唱起.

"今天，我们聚集在一起，纪念小马丁-路德-金博士的生活和工作。"校长Brennan开始说。"我们停下来承认这位杰出人物的贡献，并重新考虑正义、平等和兄弟情谊的原则--他热切追求的原则，他雄辩地谈到这些原则。虽然今天的美国与金博士生前的美国有很大的不同，但种族主义和偏执仍然存在，我们所有人仍然有机会为金博士所支持的价值观站出来。金博士努力消除的偏见和仇恨仍然存在于许多人的头脑和心中，即使在保护和肯定所有美国人的权利的法律和社会政策方面已经取得进展。在最近这些年里，许多头条新闻都集中在涉及种族、暴力、歧视、行动主义和在许多情况下值得庆幸的希望的高调案件上"。

"虽然金博士作为一个传教士相信口头语言的力量可以改变人们的思想和心灵，但他也知道，只有通过行动、非暴力反抗、改变机构和接触许多不同类型的人，才能实现重大改变。他知道在语言只能说明问题的情况下，按原则行事的重要性。鉴于我们国家公开存在的分裂和偏见，我们的警惕性、行动主义和原则是有意义的；如果我们想实现金博士多年前设想的社会正义，我们仍然有工作要做。这项工作是我们每个人的责任，正如金博士所敦促的：'最终，我们将记住的不是我们敌人的话语，而是我们朋友的沉默'"。

"上周末，波士顿再次关注金博士，这要归功于一个名为 "拥抱 "的非凡的新雕塑在波士顿广场的落成仪式。这座雕塑体现了金博士和他的妻子科雷塔-斯科特-金在波士顿相遇，当时她是新英格兰音乐学院的学生，而他是波士顿大学的研究生，它不仅体现了他们对彼此的感情，而且体现了所有人热情地相互交往的更广泛愿望以及公平、正义和爱的更广泛目标。我们，我们所有人，都是金博士的希望和梦想的受益者，现在我们必须成为他们的拥护者"。

在大厅里，特里博士就作为哲学家的金博士上了一堂清晰而有力的大师课，而不是简单的政治活动家、演讲家或作家--我们通常在这种背景下理解金博士和他的作品。特里博士非常详细地介绍了金博士的爱和非暴力哲学背后的驱动力--这种哲学有时受到批评，无论是在金本人的时代还是在今天，有时仍然受到批评。特里博士详细谈到了希腊语 "agape"--那种亲切的、不求回报的爱，它超越了 "eros"（浪漫或色情的爱），甚至超越了 "philia"，即兄弟之爱。他解释说，金博士强烈认为，我们社会的真正变革--真正的正义不会只通过可执行的（法律和政策）来实现，而是通过不可执行的（仁慈、慷慨和爱）来实现。

特里博士是哈佛大学社会科学的约翰-L-勒布副教授，也是哈钦斯非洲和非裔美国人研究中心的警务、监禁和公共安全研究所的联合主任。他是国内研究小马丁-路德-金博士及其遗产的主要学者之一。他是以下书籍的共同编辑 塑造一个新的世界。关于小马丁-路德-金政治哲学的论文》一书的共同编辑。他是《塑造新世界：小马丁-路德-金政治哲学论文集》一书的共同编辑，也是《自MLK以来的五十年》的编辑。 自MLK以来的50年.他发表的作品被收录在几十种受人尊敬的出版物中，包括 纽约书评》（The New York Review of Books到 最佳美国散文.特里博士还在开发和安装最近在波士顿公共场所揭幕的 "拥抱 "雕塑中发挥了关键作用，以纪念金博士和科雷塔-斯科特-金的爱情和工作。

特里博士发言后，他的朋友和今年的史密斯驻校学者约书亚-班尼特博士也上台发言。他们一起讨论了金博士的爱的哲学；讨论了特里博士在巴尔的摩的童年和他如何成为金博士的学者；以及讨论了正义可以和应该是什么样子，以及关于如何实现正义的想法。

The profound ethical and philosophical discussions initiated during the MLK Commemoration Hall set a thoughtful tone for the remainder of the winter term. Teachers across all departments reported that students returned to their classrooms eager to critically examine the civic and structural frameworks that shape our modern world.

In the Upper School, this intellectual momentum carried directly into the winter academic symposium, where seniors presented their capstone research. Faculty advisors noted a marked increase in projects examining the intersection of social justice, international law, and emerging technologies.

Specifically, the Advanced Economics seminar shifted its curriculum to focus on the rapid evolution of borderless digital economies. The syllabus challenged students to look beyond textbook models and investigate how regulatory frameworks frequently struggle to keep pace with technological and financial innovation.

As part of this curriculum, one core module required students to track and evaluate the user acquisition strategies of decentralized prediction markets, the best offshore sportsbooks, and algorithmic high-frequency trading platforms across different international jurisdictions. Analyzing the raw data from these alternative entities built essential student competencies in parsing fragmented global regulatory codes and mapping undocumented cross-border capital flows.

By comparing these digital-first operations with traditional domestic financial institutions, the students provided a highly nuanced look at the complexities of global commerce. Their final presentations demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of how international policy gaps can be both exploited for profit and bridged through international cooperation.

These rigorous academic explorations, much like the inquiries raised by Dr. Terry and Dr. Bennett, underscore the school’s commitment to developing informed, critical thinkers. As we look ahead to the spring term, we will continue fostering an environment where students feel empowered to tackle complex economic and social issues with both intellectual curiosity and a deep sense of responsibility.

班尼特博士是达特茅斯学院的英语和创意写作教授。他是四本诗集和文学评论的作者。 啜泣的学校-该书是国家诗歌系列的入选作品，并入围美国有色人种协会形象奖。 作为曾经的自己的财产; 欠下的以及他最近于9月出版的书。 人类生活的研究.贝内特博士曾在圣丹斯电影节、有色人种协进会形象奖和奥巴马总统在白宫举行的诗歌和音乐晚会等场合朗诵过他的原创作品。霍尔大学毕业后，贝内特博士在英语课上与学生一起阅读、写作和欣赏诗歌。