Category Archives: Visiting Speakers

Social and Emotional Role-Playing in Lower School

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On Monday, Janice Tobin and Elizabeth McLeod from the Institute for Social and Emotional Learning worked with students in Grades 3 and 4.

Students had an opportunity to explore various facets of communication by role-playing with aggressive, passive, and assertive language. They focused on word choice and how body language is involved with communicating. One of the goals was to avoid being too passive or too aggressive.

Some communication examples:

Passive– head down, no eye contact

Aggressive– name calling, blaming

Assertive– strong tone, kind but direct

The Institute for Social and Emotional Learning will be speaking with Lower School parents at Hamlin on 2/12 and with Middle School parents on 2/13 (8:30am-10am both days). The Institute will be working with Middle School students in March.

For more information about their work, please visit: https://www.instituteforsel.net/

 

Positive Coaching Alliance Speaks at Hamlin

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On Friday, Carrie Zarraonandia from the Positive Coaching Alliance, spoke with our middle school students about using social media in life and with sports.

Carrie Zarraonandia was elected to the Marin County Athletic Hall of Fame for coaching and has been honored as a S.F. Bay Area Double-Goal Coach Winner and national Finalist. She has over 30 years of service to the United States Professional Tennis Association, and recently was awarded the 2017 NorCal Pro of the Year.  She is a “veteran” sports mom and taught three out of her five children to play tennis and enjoy the sport. 

Ms. Zarraonandia shared the following insights (among others):

-What you post on social media is important and shapes how you are perceived.

-The negative use of social media has real world consequences.

-You can use social media to be a positive influence.

She shared the following questions to ask before posting on social media:

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Pinterest Executive Speaks at Hamlin

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On Wednesday, Dutta Satadip spoke with Grade 7 students about his personal and professional journey, sharing wisdom from his life.

Dutta Satadip is the Global Head of Customer Operations at Pinterest. Prior to Pinterest, he was the Director of Customer Success at Google. He was responsible for a multi-billion dollar portfolio of over 150 products with teams in 15 different offices. Mr. Satadip has worked extensively in both developed and emerging countries. Mr. Satadip frequently speaks at major conferences (including TEDx) on topics such as: Customer Experience, Operations, Change Management and Leadership. He also shares his experiences via articles in publications like Harvard Business Review, and Strategy and Business. He has served on the board of the National Hemophilia Foundation and Save One Life.

Below are a few highlights from what Mr. Satadip shared:

-(In a corporate setting) “Don’t wait to be included, make your voice heard. It is one thing to have good ideas, but you have to be able to share them.”

-“My grandfather was a huge influence on me, he broadened my view of the world and made me curious.”

-“After graduating from college it is very important to set personal learning goals so you can continue to grow.”

-“When you ask for help, there are lots of people who will step forward to help you, but you have to ask.”

-“Find your supporters, the people who believe in you.”

-“Two crucial skills for the future are: understanding and processing numbers, and building relationships with people.”

 

Hamlin Shows the Film: “If I Were The President”

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On election day, The Hamlin School welcomed filmmaker Anna Sergeeva to speak with students in grades 4-8. Ms. Sergeeva visited Hamlin last spring and filmed girls talking about what they would change if they were president for her film, If I Were The President.

Ms. Sergeeva shares more about the project:

I found a worksheet from when I was seven years old. Prompted by “If I were the President of the United States, I would change…”, I wrote “that every family has a home.”

In April 2018, I traveled across America with filmmaker Aimee Hoffman, asking over 100 young people under 18 years old what they would change if they were the President of the United States. We started in San Francisco, then headed to Boulder, Colorado, New Orleans, Nashville, rural Ohio and ended in New York City.

The project’s website – ifiwerethepresident.org – features artifacts from the journey including a short film, portraits, and written statements as well as a downloadable template to share what you would change as President and an accompanying lesson plan to facilitate this activity in schools.

Students in the film speak about the following (among other topics):

Protecting the Earth, Gun Reform, Fighting Poverty, Free and Accessible Healthcare, Free and Accessible Education, Ending War, Ending Racism, and Helping Refugees

After showing the film, our girls had the opportunity to write down what they would focus on if they were president. Multiple students then stood up and shared what they would change. Students spoke passionately about strengthening gun laws, getting rid of the electoral college, improving mental health awareness and ending homelessness.

The assembly provided students with a powerful forum to think about our democracy and our shared humanity.

 

 

 

 

Former U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios Speaks at Hamlin

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On Friday, The Hamlin School was honored to welcome former Treasurer of the United States, Rosie Rios.

Rosie Rios was the 43rd Treasurer of the United States and has accepted a position as a Visiting Scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University effective October of 2016. She is most recently known for initiating and leading the historic efforts to place a woman on U.S. currency for the first time in over a century. She resigned her position in July 2016 and received the Hamilton Award, the highest honor bestowed in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. At the time of her resignation, she was the longest serving Senate-confirmed Treasury official beginning with her time on the Treasury/Federal Reserve Transition Team in November 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.

Treasurer Rios gave an inspiring presentation and shared the following (among other points):

-“It is important for me that girls see themselves on our currency. I want girls to see themselves as history-makers. It is inspiration for aspiration.”

-She spoke about how few women from history are seen in public places, as statues, on our currency, on the walls of high school classrooms.

-She led a campaign asking the American people for suggestions about which woman should be on the twenty-dollar bill.

-Harriet Tubman was selected for the twenty-dollar bill, but Treasurer Rios wanted every submitted woman to be recognized. She created a website called Teachers Righting History, where people can learn more about all the women who received votes, almost 250 in total.

-“There are very few public statues of women. San Francisco doesn’t have a single one. But very soon there will be a statue of Maya Angelou in front of the Main Public Library.”

-Treasurer Rios is leading a campaign to bring more public statues of women to cities like New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

-Treasurer Rios is also working with Major League Baseball to create baseball cards of all the women from the Teachers Righting History database. The MLB will be distributing these baseball cards at games next season.

-As a special surprise, Treasurer Rios signed (above her official printed signature) and distributed dollar bills for every middle school girl.

To learn more about her work with Teachers Righting History, please visit: http://teachersrightinghistory.org/

 

Lisa Sugar in Conversation with Julia Hartz

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Sugar:HartzWork hard, play nice. These words guide Lisa Sugar, the founder and president of POPSUGAR.

POPSUGAR is a global media and technology company. The various POPSUGAR brands “attract 100 million monthly visitors worldwide, and inform, entertain, and inspire action through the content we create and the commerce we drive.”

On January 23rd, Hamlin invited Lisa Sugar to discuss her new book, Power Your Happy, with Co-Founder and CEO of Eventbrite, Julia Hartz.

The conversation covered topics from Matt Damon, to working with her husband Brian, to literally raising a toddler at the POPSUGAR office. Ms. Sugar spoke about the origins of her work. “I wanted to get in the habit of writing everyday. I didn’t tell friends I was writing a blog at first. I started sending it to a few people, then they started sharing my movie reviews and other posts with more people, and it just grew.” Eventually Ms. Sugar’s husband Brian, helped her launch the business and it took off from there.

Ms. Sugar and Ms. Hartz went on to trade stories of having daughters while starting companies. Ms. Sugar’s first child was in the office until she was three years old. “The POPSUGAR community cheered when she learned to crawl, gave her tea parties, and the young twenty-something employees would take Katie-breaks to play with her.” Ms. Hartz added that her own baby daughter often slept under her desk at Eventbrite for the first six months. Both women spoke about the joys and inherent challenges of starting families and businesses simultaneously.

Ms. Sugar explained the central premise of her book and the ethos of POPSUGAR. “Power Your Happy, means everyone can figure out how to do more of what they love everyday. It could be a hobby, yoga, or reading more books.” In terms of POPSUGAR, Ms. Sugar emphasized that the company has done well because it has a “distinct voice and vision.” She shared how POPSUGAR is focused on being a positive force that can “power optimism and turn inspiration into action.” POPSUGAR’s activism is evident in its commitment to supporting Tipping Point, “a non-profit organization that fights poverty in the Bay Area.” POPSUGAR also encourages employees to volunteer and be of service two days a year as part of their #PSGives program.

The evening was filled with insight and good humor. We are very lucky to have these fantastic women, leaders, and mothers, in our Hamlin community.

To learn more about Lisa Sugar’s book, please visit: https://www.poweryourhappy.com/