The Dana Hall Current Events team is hosting lunch discussions for students to talk about current events, addressing topics such as school shootings, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and demonstrations in Iran.

The Current Events team was the idea of Ms. Rachel Nagler, the Director of Community, Equity, and Inclusion. It is a group of six to eight teachers from different departments who are interested in supporting students learning about community building and current events. They started to host discussions at the end of the year, and now are taking a more active role since the new school year started. The purpose of the team is to ensure that students have space to talk about issues happening in the world and can learn more about the topic or be supported. 

Ms. Nagler said, “there are current events that often intersect with community and inclusion.” She wants to gather people to have conversations about difficult topics which might be political, like a war, or have to do with hate crime or equity. 

Ms. Heather Panahi, a member of the Current Events team and the faculty advisor of Girl Up, hosted a discussion about the demonstrations in Iran in September. Ms. Panahi said, “it was meaningful to share those events with my Dana community.” She also wants to address “topics specifically affecting women and girls” and would like to have “spaces where we can talk about positive events happening throughout the world.” Kelly Chen ‘24, who participated in the discussion about the demonstration in Iran, appreciated that “being in the discussion and listening to what other students say and ask and the teachers answering those questions was so much passion.”

Students can make requests or recommendations for lunch discussions by emailing Ms. Nagler the topic they would like to talk about.  

Photo credit: Ms. Rachel Nagler.