Strategic Plan School of fine artS honor roll - Lake Ridge Academy

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September 11th Remembered Michael Shaulis – Head of Academics and Upper School Director if you have the 2002 edition of The Peak, Lake ridge Academy’s yearbook, take it out and open it to page 2. Dominating the page is a large photograph of upper school faculty and students taken during the morning of September 11, 2001. the photo shows us gathered in the newly renovated Upper School Commons watching the horrors as they unfolded on the television screen. no caption is needed as the faces tell the story of our shock, pain, worry, and sadness. two years later, Meredith Swayngim would write in the Senior Farewell edition of the school paper that her most memorable moment at Lake ridge was 9/11 because of the way Mr. Michael, who was the Director of the Upper School, and the upper school teachers handled the day and comforted the students. it helped her and all of the students deal with the pain. She went on to write that from that day on, she really felt that “Lake ridge Academy was a community.” the iconic photo taken of the Lake ridge Academy Upper School Commons on the morning of September 11, 2001. 22 i know how she felt because as i stood in the Commons with my colleagues and students watching the television, i, too, drew comfort from being in this place with these people. As tragic as the events of that September 11th were, that day marked the beginning of the upper school that we were to become. A new sense of community emerged as well as new traditions as a result of the attacks. One of these traditions is Diversity Forum. Organized by Dr. Mozumdar, Diversity Forum was a reaction to the acute sense of alienation that our Middle eastern and South Asian students were experiencing, best expressed by senior Omar Al- Jadda’s words to Dr. Mozumdar, “i didn’t do it.” these Lake ridge Academy students began to feel that they were different and that perhaps even their fellow classmates viewed them as being different, as a fearful American public made a person’s ethnicity a reason for suspicion. Our first Diversity Forum, held in the fall of 2001, brought together a number of students from the surrounding area who met with a panel of Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim religious leaders as they discussed the commonality of all religious philosophies. Growing in size and scope over the years, Diversity Forum has since become one of the pillars of the Upper School as each year we continue to educate our students on the various issues of diversity. this year marked the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. At various ceremonies around the country, people remembered those whose lives were lost, the sacrifices of first responders at Ground Zero, and the heroic efforts of a group of passengers whose plane flew briefly over the skies of northern Ohio. Here at Lake ridge Academy, we also remembered how many of us came together as a community on that day, how we comforted each other, and how we sought to educate ourselves in a time of tragedy to find common ground, understanding, and hope for a better world.
10th Anniversary “i didn’t do it!” With these words, the American High School senior sought absolution from his teacher. this young man, who had been as American as apple pie, felt that he had been relegated to the role of the “other” in the single horrific moment when the twin towers of the World trade Center came crashing down. these simple words became the driving force behind Lake ridge Academy’s First Annual Diversity Forum. the theme that year was “united We Stand.” the question before the participants was: Could the united States of America overcome the religious divide that had been created by the catastrophe? in subsequent years, the Lake ridge Academy Annual Diversity Forum has sought to provide a venue for student voices, and ultimately produce student leaders who will be future decisionmakers. the forum, consisting of students from independent, parochial, and public schools, has grown from an initial attendance of seventy-five students from ten schools to nearly six hundred students from twenty-five schools. Lake ridge Academy is committed to community outreach as an institution, and this has become a foundational goal of the forum. enabling inner-city public school students a platform to voice their social and cultural concerns and convictions, and an Megan Leake ’09 with Paul rusesabagina and Dr. Mozumdar Lake Ridge Academy’s Diversity Forum opportunity for the suburban students to step out of their “protected” sphere has imbued the forum with a dynamism that continues to grow every year. For one day in October, young men and women from diverse socioeconomic and academic backgrounds come together here at Lake ridge Academy to voice their opinions on a central theme and listen to an expert or experts in that field. in 2002, the forum centered on what was the young adult perspective on American foreign policy in the post 9/11 world; in 2003 the forum turned inwards and discussed “Whether or not there is diversity in public education.” During these events, students listened to and participated in conversations with the guest speakers. the 2004 Diversity Forum focused on the role of women and immigrants in American life in the twentyfirst century. the foundation questions for discussion were: What is a woman’s position in the political arena in the 21st century and does her traditional role as a “nurturer” add to or detract from her credibility as a political leader? Our keynote speaker was Secretary Madeleine Albright due to her unique qualification to address all these questions. Listening to Secretary Albright was a life-changing experience for most of the young people attending the forum. tom Klein ‘05 and Jelena Lovric ‘05 join former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the 2008 forum had the honor of hosting Paul rusesabagina, the extraordinary humanitarian who saved the lives of hundreds during the rwandan genocide. the question before the attendees was this: What is the price of silence? Only by admitting to and speaking up against seemingly mundane everyday bigotry do we create an environment that will never produce a rwandan genocide. Our 2009 forum reacted to the economic recession in the country by enacting a poverty simulation enabling students to experience firsthand some of the tough economic choices families in our communities have to make. this year was our tenth anniversary, and we re-created our first forum to check the pulse of our nation, ten years after 9/11. Students interacted with a panel of religious leaders – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh – on the question, what is the role of religion in a national crisis? it is our hope that we will always be the gadfly that continues to ask the questions that are good for the soul of a nation. — Dr. Chandana Mozumdar, Dean of Students, Chair of History Department. taken from this year’s Diversity Forum, seated on stage are members of the religious panel 23
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Strategic Plan School of fine artS honor roll - Lake Ridge Academy

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