BRINGING THE OUTSIDE WORLD IN

AN ALUM — say, poet Storme Webber ’77 opening up to students in Lindsay Aegerter’s Quest for Queer Literature elective, or historian and journalist Knute Berger ’72 sharing insights with James Nau’s class Seattle: Culture and History — is a surprisingly common sight at the front of Lakeside’s classrooms. A Middle School parent with expertise shares concepts of archaeology with 6th graders. Internationally known Iroquois lacrosse player Neal Powless — a friend of Lakeside science teacher Michael Black and a colleague in the DEI world of the lacrosse community — stops by during a visit to Seattle to speak to the boys lacrosse team about Indigenous culture and value systems. A weaver from Oaxaca, Mexico, shares his Zapotec heritage with Middle School Spanish classes. Guest speakers of all kinds enrich the student experience here, and there’s often a personal relationship behind the appearance.

Of the many guest speakers who come to campus, the physicians and researchers who return year after year to

Bob Lapsley’s global health class represent true partnership. For more than a decade, Lapsley has built relationships with the University of Washington Medical Center, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and the Gates Foundation. Long-time repeat speakers include Carey Farquhar (on HIV research in Kenya), Stephen Gloyd (on the role of debt and global financial interests on public health), Scott Meschke (on sanitation and hygiene in the developing world), Janet Englund (on children and the flu, SARS, and COVID-19), and Chris Sanford (on emergency medicine in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Haiti earthquakes). The list goes on. The benefit to students is obvious: not only the diversity of content and vivid firstperson experiences, but the chance to learn about careers, see role modeling, witness how science in the lab or classroom has real-world application.

Meanwhile, the presenters have to be on their game, articulating their findings and analysis to an engaged group outside of their normal spheres. That alone can be inspiring.

I’m always excited again seeing young, smart, motivated kids. I talk about modeling disease outbreaks and designing vaccine deployment strategies. It’s a fun tutorial setting, unlike talking with my peers. Lacking the context of the field, the students ask better questions.”

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING TRIPS — at their best — offer students the opportunity to immerse themselves in different cultures, develop empathy and perspective, and contribute to meaningful service projects. The partnership between Lakeside School and the nonprofit organization Rise Beyond the Reef, founded by Janet West Lotawa ’96 and her Fijian husband, Semi, lies at the heart of one of the school’s Global Service Learning trips that exemplify those opportunities.

The small South Pacific island, where a third of the population lives below the poverty line, is among the most vulnerable in the world to disasters related to climate change, including extreme and intensifying cyclones. Notes Lotawa, no amount of mitigation or adaptation is going to address the amount of loss the remote communities here experience every five or six years. “It is exhausting,” she says. “It is a constant cycle of loss and recovery.” Through Rise Beyond the Reef, Lotawa works to include Fiji’s traditional products and foods in the commerce of the global economy. “The goal,” she says, “is to help communities help themselves.”

The partnership between Lakeside and Rise Beyond the Reef was established through Lakeside's GSL office on a foundation of trust and shared values. The program in Fiji is distinct from other partnerships because of the cultural context of the local communities, the connections facilitated by Janet Lotawa, and the unique service opportunities that Lakeside students engage in. Lisa Devine, associate director of global programs, appreciates “that the community that hosts our students has very strong traditions and cultural protocols that students need to learn prior to arriving.” Students are welcomed with a Cava ceremony. There are particular ways to sit and execute rituals when making and receiving drinks. Students must be aware of how they enter and exit homes and how to dress appropriately.

While language and cultural barriers are initially challenging for students, the Lakesiders quickly learn how to communicate with their Indigenous hosts, respect the culture, and engage in service projects centered on gardening and self-sufficiency — all the while developing mutual trust and respect.

“The GSL Fiji trip inevitably changes the students and the locals in the community,” says Devine, “opening everyone’s hearts.” Many students stay in contact with their host families and occasionally even return to Fiji — where they find framed photos of Lakeside students displayed alongside those of family members. Quinton Hayre ’19 has returned to Fiji twice since his GSL trip: once to introduce his nuclear family to his Fijian host family, and a second, six-week visit to develop a community-scale water filtration project for an independent project connected with his studies at the University of Notre Dame. His work will indirectly support the self-sufficiency goals of Rise Beyond the Reef.

Hayre even returned to Lakeside and gave a presentation to Upper School science teacher Nicki Wallace’s Blue Planet class — bringing the relationship full circle and expanding the ripple effects of a truly global partnership.

— Angelina P. ’24

“I’m not sure Lakeside students realize how much impact they have. The majority of positive Western exposure this community experiences is Lakeside. You can’t just show up in Fiji and expect to be trusted. It’s a culturally delicate place. It makes all the difference having Janet and Semi on the ground connecting us.”

— QUINTON HAYRE ’19, undergraduate research assistant and student at the University of Notre Dame