Ethical Leadership Retreat Launches a Year-Long Project at the Upper School
More than 100 Upper School students from ninth through twelfth grade gathered for MKA’s annual Ethical Leadership retreat, Writing Tomorrow. Organized by Dean of Student Life and Tri-Campus Chair of Ethics Kerry Verrone and led by a team from Stanford's design school and the organization, Only People, the students engaged in futures thinking by considering what they wanted the future to look like and what they wanted their legacy to be. As Kerry Verrone shared in her opening statement, “When we visualize and articulate what we want tomorrow to hold, we can better understand where we must root ourselves today.”
Students collaborated with and were inspired by facilitators Manasa Yeturu, Louis Montoya, and Seamus Yu Harte, as they imagined the future and created collages and accompanying artist statements to represent their thinking. This event kicked off what will be a year-long project for students to edit and refine their vision.
MKA is committed to the individual and collaborative process of developing ethical leadership. The annual retreat is an initiative of The Philip McNeal Leadership Program (PMLP), MKA’s signature program providing students with robust curricular and co-curricular activities that deepen the conversation on the topic of Ethical Leadership and help students identify their own unique leadership style in order to best prepare for college and the world beyond.
Learn more about the facilitators who made the evening so special:
Manasa Yeturu is the curriculum lead for Stanford’s d.school’s renowned multi-disciplinary program, Design For Extreme Affordability, and design lecturer at Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school). Manasa has 15+ years of experience working at the intersection of social impact + design, from being part of Teach for India’s startup team to leading government initiatives at GOOD Media. She is no stranger to working on complex problems with the ethos of equity and collective care at the center of her design work.
Louie Montoya is a designer, artist, futurist, and educator. Currently, he co-leads Educational Future(s) work at the Stanford d.school in his role as an Experience Designer in the K12 Lab as well as the Lead Experience Designer at Only People. Louie believes that all humans should feel liberated (and celebrated) to show up as their authentic selves and to be in communities that love and support them. Whatever form his work takes, it is this aspiration that drives him forward to create a better future. At home, Louie is a punk rock enthusiast, cook, and comic book artist. Born in New Mexico, he is (somehow) a New Englander at heart. In his free time, you might find him at a natural history museum, in line at a taco truck, or at the beach during the off-season.
Seamus Yu Harte is the founder of Only People, a learning experience design studio based in Palo Alto, CA, and the Head of Learning Experience Design for the Electives Program at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school). Prior to Only People and the d.school, Seamus was the Senior Producer for the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, Learning Experience Designer at Digital Media Academy, and Creative Director and Director of Radical Experiments at Nearpod. From Yoko Ono to David Kelley, Seamus has had the opportunity to teach and learn with world-class creatives. He holds a BS in Sound Design from SAE and an MFA in Documentary Film + Video from Stanford University where he also received Fellowships from The Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts (SiCA) and The San Francisco Foundation.