Park Scholar Mia O’Brien (’15), Director of Multimedia Production and radio host for the Jacksonville Jaguars flagship station, opened the fall 2024 semester seminar. She discussed the responsibility all Park Scholars bear for paying forward the opportunities they have been given as she shared her personal experience overcoming bias and opening people’s hearts and minds to help create change. She also carried that message to Park School students in several classrooms and student organizations over the course of her three days in Ithaca.
In the second program, fittingly held on Election Day, Park Scholar Sam Edelstein (’22) spoke about addressing bias and countering misinformation and disinformation during an election. Sam is the COO of Poliquicks, a cross-platform, non-partisan political education app.
As the semester wound down, the third program featured Park Scholar Charlotte Robertson (’18), who spent the preceding 18 months as Digital Director on the Josh Stein campaign for governor of North Carolina. She talked about the challenges of overcoming online bias and the ways of creating a digital communications space that advances civility and promotes open and honest dialogue, and she discussed the challenges of opening people’s minds and enlisting them to be part of a process of positive change.