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Young Alumni Spotlight
Good evening everyone and welcome my name is Christine and I will be your host and moderator for this evening. As we go through our young alumni spotlight featuring Kylem Tatum, a graduate of the class of 2021. And So what we're going to do is we're going to wait a little bit for some of our registrants to log on and get ready.
To enjoy the program so if everyone can just do me a quick favor and make sure to put in the chat whether or not you can hear me just because I'm hopeful that I'm not doing a 32nd monologue where no one is hearing what I'm saying. So alright, it's coming in and another little game I like to play is. Let's see who is hearing me from the furthest. So if you could throw out what city or what state, or what country you're in, I'll try to decipher who is calling in from.
The furthest so uhm.
We've got Hong Kong fun. Oh, San Jose. That's good. Princeton Yardley. That's good. That's good. Oh Atlanta love it India. OK, I'll take it Mars. That's good. That's a little far. I'm glad to see we've got some Internet connection out there. UM, wonderful. OK, so we're getting closer and closer to our number. So what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and get started just so our friend Kyle in here.
Has all the time in the world to answer all these questions, so uhm.
First off, again, welcome to our Discover Lawrenceville or discover Elville Young alumni spotlight and so tonight we are featuring Kylem Tatum from the class of 2021 to start off the evening, I'm going to introduce myself. Then I'm going to introduce Kyle in a bit, then we'll kind of just dive right into peppering kaylin with some questions so that he gets to feel exactly the way you all feel as you're going.
Through your interviews with us and with others, and so for me, my name is Mrs Ding Christine Ding. I work in the Admissions office as the Director of Admissions, Communications, and Associate Director of admissions, and so, in my role, I get to interview students, read applications, be a part of those admissions committees. I also run our social media and all of our online programming and our tour guide program so.
I love events like this 'cause I love being able to show off the unique aspects of the Lawrenceville community. In addition to my work in the Admissions Office I coached JV field hockey and JV Lacrosse and I live in Kirby House so I am the assistant head of House in one of our girls 10th and 11th grade houses on the Crescent and so obviously you'll hear a little bit more from kailyn's perspective of our House system.
And where he's lived in all that good stuff so.
Again, thank you for all being here and what I'm going to do is. I'm going to hop right into reading Kyle and Bio just so we know that we've covered all our bases and we didn't leave anything out about him. And then we're gonna just hop right into some questions. So Kyle and Tatum grew up in Plainsboro, NJ prior to starting as a second former Kaylin attended Princeton Day School after his second form year, and boys lower, Kaylin was in the Griswold house, followed by.
Going back to boys lower as a prefect in his senior year during his time at Lawrenceville Kyle and played for the Boys Varsity, Tennis and squash teams and manage the Girls Varsity tennis team. He was also involved with spectrum, the sports business club, TEDx Lawrenceville School, the Innovation, Marketing and Entrepreneurship Club. The linguist, the Gender Sexuality Alliance, the lit prize papers, the Lawrenceville Historical Review, the First Amendment, Pantech Hutchens scholar program.
And the Griswold House council.
He didn't really get involved that much. His favorite class was Doctor Williams course on African American literature. Kailyn is currently in his first year at Harvard, where he is studying English, women, gender, sexuality studies and ethnicity migration rights. OK, so kaylin did I miss anything that you want to throw in there?
No, I I think that's everything. Thank you for the introduction.
Awesome, So what we're going to do is we are going to hop right into some of our questions so.
Kyle and your journey to Harvard set you up for intense Ivy League classes and robust discussions. What classes and or teachers at Lantzville actually prepared you for that level of rigor?
Definitely, so I've actually been talking about a few people 'cause my parents are sort of curious about the same question and some of my friends that are still at Lawrenceville two and what I actually tell them, is that I think that Lawrenceville classes honestly have been more difficult and perhaps even more robust than classes here at Harvard. I think one of the ways that classes help prepare us is through the Harkness method one a lot of the classes here, like they're part, lecture part section, and often in section like.
Oak Island one. Quick thing I hate to interrupt you, but we're getting a couple comments here that it's hard to hear you. So if you could talk a little bit louder. Just some of that. We've got some friends here in the chat saying it's a bit hard to hear you, so if you could just yell I guess is what will is what we'll do, OK?
OK, yes is. Is this a good volume for people?
That works for me, I think.
OK.
Oh, that's right.
Alright, I will. I will speak a little louder so I guess I'll start from the beginning.
Actually found that class at Lawrenceville, but perhaps a little more intense and robust than classes here have been so far. I, I think one of the reasons for that is the structure of Lawrenceville classes. Having them all sort of be Harkness, space, and discussion based. It really requires you to engage with the material in a way that a lot of other classes that are more lecture style might not require you to. I think another thing too, that I really appreciated about Lawrenceville classes is getting you in the habit.
Christine Ding
07:37:12 PM
Kylan Tatum '21 grew up in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Prior to starting as a second former, Kylan attended Princeton Day School. After his second form year in Boys Lower, Kylan was in the Griswold House, followed by Boys Lower as a prefect his senior year. During his time at Lawrenceville, Kylan played for the boys’ varsity tennis and squash teams and managed the girls’ varsity tennis team. He was also involved with Spectrum, the Sports Business Club, TEDxLawrencevilleSchool, the Innovation, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship Club, the Linguist, the Gender Sexuality Alliance, the Lit, Prize Papers, the Lawrenceville Historical Review, the First Amendment, Pantect, the Hutchins Scholar Program, and Griswold House Council. His favorite class was Dr. William’s course on African American Literature. Kylan is currently in his first year at Harvard where he is studying English, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, and Ethnicity, Migration, Rights.
Of writing something that I'm a humanities major. If you couldn't tell from the bio and something I have to do a lot here is write essays. And so Lawrenceville really helped me one both refined my writing craft also getting comfortable creating essays in different subjects and then being able to one time manage as you do have a good amount of work. But there's certainly time to do it, so I think Lawrenceville has really prepared me for class here. I think for specific classes.
Definitely Doctor Williams African American literature class of one of the most interesting, but also the most difficult classes I've taken. I remember we'd go through a book or two every week, something like 90 pages of reading at night, and while it was quite difficult at first, I'm definitely grateful for that now, as I'm already used to like that sort of workload here and then. Also, another class would be maybe pre calculus BC with Mr Ferguson. I think something that's really unique about more insults math department too.
Is that they sort of require you to think very out of the box, so I know with Mr. Ferguson, we actually would learn the lesson of our homework the day after we did our homework. So it would require you to sort of read through the textbook and work through problems on your own before you get the formal instruction from the teacher. And I think that type of learning, sort of more hands-on mathematical learning as opposed to more lecture style definitely helped me with my problem solving skills, and it certainly helped me here. So Lawrenceville, definitely.
Made me very well prepared for school here.
That's great, I I always think that students when they're leaving Lawrence so they arrive at college and they're like what now because at Lawrence. But you're so busy all the time and your classes simply because your classes are running a full day and you know, once you get to college and university, your schedule is a little bit different. Those, you know, classes don't meet as much, it's all different times, and so you receive these chunks of time, which at Lawrenceville time is a gift, right? Kyle? And I'm sure you.
Have great time management skills from all that stuff you were working on here. So dumb.
Next, we're actually going to take it back at this point, about five years, Kyle, and So what specifically drew you to Lawrenceville. Assuming you had choices, you know you could have stayed at the school that you were at previously, so why Lawrenceville?
Definitely, so I think there were a few things that drew me to Lawrenceville, but essentially they go down to extracurricular opportunities and academic opportunities for the academic. Specifically, I was really drawn to the wide variety of electives that Lawrenceville had like. There's not many places in high school where you can take a class on race and mass incarceration or politics and poetry in Spanish or muralist of Mexico, or research and molecular genetics. Which are some of the things that I got to take because of.
Rentals, broad course offerings, and then also just the amount of opportunities to pursue different types of clubs and to start your own clubs like some of the things that I most enjoyed, it. Lawrenceville were things that either had already existed there, like some niches within the school, or things that I was able to start because it is pretty easy to start things that you're interested in. For example, a friend and I started a multilingual news and politics magazine, published in six different languages, and that's something that's really like.
They're not possible in a lot of places or something that requires, like a lot of administrative tasks. That makes it really difficult to implement, and I found that at Lawrenceville it was really easy for me to sort of pursue my extracurricular interests. I was lucky enough to have a brother who was there at the time, and so I was also able to speak with him and he sort of confirmed that experience with me that there was both a lot of intellectual freedom in the classes that you could take, and also a lot of extra curricular freedom from again, things like the magazine to even like a spike ball club.
There's a squirrel club on campus 2, so there's there's really something for everyone there, and actually curriculars are such a large part of the school life that like I would say, I honestly probably split my time pretty equally between school and extracurriculars just because there's really a lot of opportunities to explore what you're interested there and capacities that might not be possible in the classroom. Even though there are, of course so many great opportunities there too. So those are sort of the two main things that drew me to come to Lawrenceville.
Over my old school.
Well, perfect segue into our next question so.
Clubs and activities are a large part of the boarding school experience, and from your bio it's clear you took advantage of this at Lawrenceville. What clubs meant the most to you and why?
Definitely. I think the first club that stands out to me the most is probably Spectrum Magazine, which is a magazine I ended up starting with one of my friends here. Chelsea here is in in college with me and so essentially what happened is we were both.
In the Gender Sexuality Alliance together and we're both pretty involved with publications like we both do. Like English journalism things and what we notice is that there was really a lack of a platform for people within that community, like within the Gender Sexuality Alliance. One like the clubs visibility was a little low like and also like past leadership had had sort of like prevented us from making sure that like queer issues are being heard on campus. And so again we actually started a magazine to sort of combat.
That, and through that we've published issues on things such as black power and queer pride and the intersection of that. We've had a personal issue where students have shared their stories like on campus and off campus, and I guess that was really meaningful to me because it's really an example of, like the possibilities that Lawrenceville gave me and that I was able to take a passion and an issue that I saw and easily implement that into the community to make some change. So Spectrum was definitely a club.
That really meant a lot to me. This isn't as much a club, but more in extracurricular. Also, the tennis team meant a lot to me. Tennis is one of my favorite things. Like my teachers would always joke that like they saw me as much practicing on the courts as they would like from class time. So being able to be out there, one as a player and then two. Also getting to manage the girls team and getting to know the people there. Both really really great experiences with me for me. And I've I've gone back. I went to one of the tennis.
Patches for the girls this past fall and I'm hoping to get to some in the spring for for the guys too, but definitely one of my favorite parts of my low until experience.
Awesome, and I think now is a is a an opportunity to do a plug real quick for just how our athletics work in terms of they are all Co curricular so that means every student must participate in something and so we have many different layers in many different tiers. But the difference between Kyle and extracurricular involvement and then his athletic is that everyones.
Doing some sort of something in the afternoon, whereas all of the other things that Kaylin did. He did those by choice, so he was able to essentially always say fill up his bucket with all those things but tennis he had to be doing something and it was. He's just quite a dedicated tennis racquet sport person. I guess tennis and squash and then supporting the girls in this spring so wonderful. Thank you for sharing that, UM.
OK, so this is a toughie. Kyle, and so get ready. So one of the first things we find most students want to know when they're applying to boarding school is what type of student does the admissions committee look for? Looking back on your experience, what advice can you give perspective students listening to you today?
Go ahead, there's a second part. I'll ask that next.
Definitely such a tough question and one that there's there's lots of answers to it and I hate to give us a somewhat corny answer, but well, I'm like. Have something that I think what they really want to see is one that you have things that you're interested in, and two that you've gone to whatever extent that you can to pursue what you're interested in and that you're truly passionate about those things.
Like whatever that is.
And I I think there are a few examples of this. Well, I'm I. I was actually talking with my friend Chelsea as I was preparing for this and she actually gave me permission to share one of her stories and and so for her. She had actually applied to Lawrenceville as a freshman didn't get in as a freshman and then reapplied as a sophomore year and she ended up being our grades valedictorian. So obviously very worthwhile. But what she said actually to me is that for her first year.
Applying that her parents had sort of like, like overshadowed like all of her processes like they told her like what to like. Write like kind of like how to write her essays like also prepped her for an interview like gave her like a very specific narrative that like she wasn't too like attached to when she was a kid. Obviously not lying on the application but still like like not necessarily focusing on what was most important to her. And then I know she said that her next year when she went in like for her interview and for her essays she really wanted to approach them by just talking about.
What really interested her and what she was really passionate about. And I I think like for a lot of people, that's really what they want to see in a high school, especially like coming out of middle school like it. It's very hard to like have like super impressive. There are certainly people who do, but it's very hard to like. Have like the most impressive resumes and whatever you're interested in studying in the future. And So what really is important is like demonstrating your connection to that why you want to pursue that and sort of what steps at this stage in your life you've gone through.
To try to pursue that, I remember when I was writing my essays and there were a few of them, so I can't recall all of them, but.
I remember a risk that I was sort of a risk that I was debating with my parents as I really wanted to write about writing and for me, writing had always been something that I had sort of kept a little secret, like it was sort of like something that I would do in journals or something that I would do for myself, but not really something that I would submit to competitions like I know a lot of kids in middle school submit to like Scholastic art and writing that that sort of thing wasn't necessarily for me, and so one of the concerns of my parents was that you have.
This thing like that, yes, you're interested in, but like you haven't like demonstrated that you like, have like gotten any awards from it. Or like any like big achievements. And so I I sort of pushed back on that a lot. And I was like, well, it's certainly something where I think I could do something in the future and also something where I think I can really demonstrate my passion in my interest. Fast forward to five years today like I'm probably going to be an English major and I'm studying that so it really is about like demonstrating the things that you're passionate about and not being afraid.
In some cases too, like just talk about something that you're really interested in that you might not have big fancy awards for, but something that's really meaningful to you. 'cause at the end of the day they really want to get to know who you are as a person and who you're going to be in. The Lawrenceville School community.
Kayla at this session is recording and I think I'm going to take that snippet exactly and just play it on a loop in our admissions waiting room, because that is exactly what we want kids to hear. We want them to know that we are just looking for our next best community members and so.
Thank you for sharing Matt. 'cause it was.
Spot on so uhm.
And the next the follow-up question to that was, what would you suggest? They focus on getting across to the admissions committee? I feel like you answered that a little bit, but if there's anything you want to add for that.
No.
Perfect.
Yeah, I, I think I think we could run again. Just to reiterate, like passion and interest like even if you don't know specifically where you want to go, or even if you do, just making sure that you're communicating like your interest in your passion to the committee. But I think I'll leave it at that since I I think we talked about it a little bit.
That's great, thank you so.
Parents and students alike want to know how the advisor on campus, and specifically at Lawrenceville, the head of House was involved in your path to success.
Can you recall a time when your advisor or your teacher stepped in to support you while you were here at Lawrenceville?
Definitely so I I think the advising the head of houses are systems that are. You need to Lawrenceville in their own particular ways. I remember like probably the advice I got to know the most was Mrs Cantley who was my advisor for my sophomore and junior years because in most cases for students you have the same advisor, your sophomore, and your junior year, and that advisor is also in your House too. And then you also have like lunches with your advisor and your advisor group.
Cheaters.
Yep.
It used to be every Monday, but I hear that the schedule is changing a little bit now, so I think it's every Tuesday.
But essentially, one thing that I really like is that there are so many opportunities to get to know your advisor and your head of house as people to like for Miss Cantley for example. She also worked in the Community Service Office, so I actually won. Got to know her through community service, actually took a class with her too. And then she was also in the house with me and then also her husband was my tennis coach too. So it's like that it's such a personal relationship that you have with your advisors and so honestly, when I was thinking about it I was finding it really hard to.
Recall a very specific moment just because I feel like she had been there with me. Sort of throughout like all of my time at Lawrenceville. And then it was more like being there like as a support system like we used to have like advisory dinner is at at Mrs. Can't leave house or like even for like my head of house. Mr Cuniff who was actually also another one of my tennis coach. Is he like one time when like my parents were like out for a few weeks traveling like there was an extreme in Griswold and he was sort of very accommodating and let me stay there.
Like for a few weeks while my parents were gone too. So I I think it's really like advisors and head of houses are like really, really unique here because you do have such a personal relationship with them and you run into them everywhere, whether in the classroom and extracurriculars and sports or in the house. And so I think really like it's hard to point to a specific moment just because they were such a constant presence in my life at Lawrence, so.
That's awesome, wonderful, wonderful, UM, so our perspective families are comparing schools. What advice would you give to a family who may need to know? One thing that makes Lawrenceville unique or distinctive?
Definitely, I'm.
Sure, many of you heard this a lot, but I have to say that the House system really is something that makes Lawrenceville special one because it's it's so personal. Again, you're like advisors are there, like like your teachers like your coaches. Like all in like 1 tight community and then each house has its own like traditions too. I know we'll probably talk about this later, but one that's like sort of fan to me is like we do a fundraiser every year, schoolwide for Saint Baldrick's. Which raises money for cancer.
Research and a song written by one of the advisors in my house. Mr Jordan, who's now like he went to Lawrenceville, was in Griswold and is now an adviser in Griswold.
Has a song called Griswold Go Bald that we sort of sing during the fundraiser to like all of the boys and Grizz, sort of get up on stage and like sing this song. It's usually pretty off tune, but like we we started seeing it like during this fundraiser to like help recreate some school spirit. And then there's just so many like traditions like baked into the house is like a lot of my really close friends were in McClellan which was a sophomore, junior girls house and they have every Monday there McLellan or every other Monday McClelland, milkshakes?
Where they would make milkshakes on their porch and people from all across the school would come play music outside and then play some games and it usually be on a Monday night and people would sort of just be hanging out, maybe pushing off their homework for a little bit. But certainly like the House culture is something that, at least when I was looking into other boarding schools, I didn't really get from anywhere else, and it was such an integral part of my experience at Lawrenceville that I really wouldn't change for anything. So I definitely think the House system
definitely deciding itself among the other things here at Lawrenceville.
Awesome, wonderful, UM? So as you were applying, you mentioned this a little bit already, but as you're applying where your parents involved in the process and if So what do you wish you could tell them now that you had the opportunity to attend Lawrenceville?
Imagine they're tuning in. Now, what would you say?
Yes, I think my parents were very, very involved in my process. Both look like hammering me with interview questions like in the car like at all times, to like getting on me to write and rewrite and rewrite my essays. I suppose one thing that I would tell them looking back now is that it's it's OK to sort of not stress over every tiny little detail one like Lawrenceville as a school. And then even later on in college.
Like it's it's very like a holistic view, like they're the little tiny things aren't necessarily going to like make or break your application, and I suppose that's something I always knew, but even something I confirmed recently. 'cause that's cool. I actually requested my college admissions file, which was very scary, but I sort of got to like see the things that like my admissions officers had said, and it's like all the tiny things that you like you stress about like in the end, don't really affect you like like studying that much to like retake the essay T for like 20.
Extra points or like like making sure you get that one particular word in the essay right? Like those are all things that could cause like extra anxiety and stress to your kid and all and like won't necessarily make that much of a dish a difference like in the long run. And So what I would say is definitely take the process seriously.
I definitely make sure that you're putting a lot of energy into it, but don't over pressure your kids to the point where like you're stressing over every tiny thing, because in the end that one small thing isn't gonna make too much of a difference. And really, they're going to be looking at you on the whole, so as long as, again you're communicating your interest, your passion, and like how you're pursuing that, you should be fine. So just maybe may I like your kids a little bit, 'cause I definitely. I definitely know the experience of being on the other side of that too.
Awesome and we know they do it because they care, right?
Yes, of course.
Wonderful, so dumb.
We hope those listening in right now will get admitted and walked the paths as you did, and please tell our gas what's the best place in our little town for food or coffee or to just sit and relax. And then after that we'll move on to some of your favorite treats from our dining hall and bathhouse.
Yes, definitely. I spent so much time in the unless street right across from Lawrenceville called Main Street. Actually, my mom was texting me yesterday and she was like I walked into Starbucks and they were like our sales have gone down since your son is graduated. So of course I have to say Starbucks. 1 The Lawrenceville Starbucks community is actually very strong. Like at any time of the day like you can find Lawrenceville students there from 5:30 in the morning till like 9:00 PM.
At night, when they closed and then also like from being there so much like you know all the breeze is there usually like they know your name like and like you have conversations with them like even some of them like. I'll talk to like outside of Starbucks too. It's just it's a really close community, lots of seating, lots of people do work there. That's definitely one of my favorite places. When I was there another one, of course, is the Gingered Peach, which is one of the best bakeries I've ever been to. I'd heavily recommend the cinnamon rolls very good.
Uhm?
But that yeah, so that's that's a place where I go like whenever I'm craving a lot of sugar or something with a little too many calories, and then also probably TJ's too.
It's it's good. It's good like greasy pizza and fries like it doesn't get much better than that, but it's also a place where a lot of people will hang out since it's open really late compared to some of the other restaurants. So you can find people there like 1011 like. Well there is check in but on on like Saturdays you can find people there pretty late just hanging out talking. So really really great like social spaces too. In addition to the food that's there.
Awesome yeah, so I will clarify some of those hours that kaylin is just talking about. So Kyle is remembering his days as a fifth former, A 12th grader where his permissions to be off campus timeline is a little long, a little bigger than our 9th graders. So 9th graders are permitted to hop off campus starting at 6:00 in the morning, but must be back in their house by 8:00 o'clock.
At night and then on Saturday night and it is that 11:00 o'clock mark for everyone. Check in is at 11:00 o'clock, and so I'm among another. There's an earlier check in in the evening and then 11:00 o'clock is the final. So yes, you are able after the dance to walk across the street, grab a slice of pizza. Gab about the evenings events and before heading back to your house. So great and tell us your favorite.
Dining hall meals. So tell us your favorite things that you ate from Abbott Dining Hall.
Oh
so hard.
I feel like my personal favorites were definitely the yogurt bar.
To get like yo guys strawberry yogurt with chocolate chips which isn't very healthy but definitely one of my favorites. Or like 'cause there's a toaster like a bagel with Nutella and sliced bananas. Those are probably my two favorite meals, but then I I used to love. Of course, like when they had like chicken tenders, but I'm actually now pescatarian so I I stopped. I stopped having that, but Nutella bagel with bananas and yogurt with chocolate chips. Definitely my favorites.
Awesome and I think one of the things that's so nice is there is in our dining halls such variety and those breakfast items are open and available throughout the day, so that's always nice to see as well. Well, great. OK uhm.
So let's move into some fun stuff. Some you know, not so. Admissions Lawrenceville based. So what, UM, podcasts or books? Are you reading or listening to right now?
So many, I mean I major in English II read too many books, but some of the ones I've read recently are on Earth were briefly gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.
I also read a lot of poetry, so one that my friend recommended to me is Alicia Ostriker's waiting for the light and then also like I found that I recently I haven't been reading as much like full books so much as I've been reading like short stories or poetry. So I've been reading a lot of poetry and like the adroit journal, which is a journal like I'm a huge fan of. I've been reading a lot of poetry by Ocean Vuong.
A lot by Audre Lorde recently. But a lot of poetry and then podcasts.
I've actually had. I haven't gotten two into podcasts surprisingly enough.
But I remember in one of my race in mass incarceration classes I sort of exposed to WINC's caught or Wny sees caught which I've been listening to a little bit and then recently a podcast about executive Order 9066 which I've been listening to for one of my immigration incarceration classes. So a lot of a lot of fun small snippets but no, no huge books. Recently lots of like smaller things to digest.
Awesome OK uhm.
You touched on this a little bit, but we'll do a deep dive now, so finally.
Give us your honest opinion which house is the best house on campus and why?
The Griswold House is definitely the best house on campus.
One great duty team. They also a lot of them are involved with tennis, which is of course A plus.
But definitely some of our favorite traditions, Griswold, go bald, is definitely one of my favorites. Also, like we have like the night before Christmas, right before we go off to our break for the winter, like during Turkey term, which is sort of this two week period of winter term, like after Thanksgiving break. And like before we go off for winter break. And So what happened is we all gather in the bathhouse, which is like our on campus cafe.
Excuse me
And we'll sort of one like tell stories from the year, and then also sometimes they'll have like rap battles where you'll have to like suddenly like but politely like this. The other people in your house, and so that it's a really like fun, light hearted way to bond with other people in the house right before we go off for the break. So definitely tune my favorite traditions of the house. I think I think for the Crescent close second could be McClellan.
Sorry, I'm sorry, but the house I spent a lot of time with McLeod milkshakes definitely one of my favorite things, but it just happened that a lot of my best friends were also in that house too. Definitely Griswold McClellan. Best locations on campus too.
pretty good, although Kirby it's at the other end of the Crescent so that much closer to the dining hall, that much closer to the athletic fields. It's a pretty good spot. I'm not at all, uhm?
Fabulous OK, so that it concludes the set questions I had, but I will say some of the questions have been rolling in and what I do want to mention first and have you talk about a little bit is something we haven't really touched on and that was your involvement in the Hutchins Scholar program. And so I'd really like for you to explain what that is.
If people on here don't know any part of it, and then explain what you did with this program.
Definitely. So the Hudson Scholar program is sort of Lawrenceville. Centralized thing for science research and usually they take a cohort of anywhere from 8 to 14 students depending on the year. I know they've been in trying to increase that number, but essentially what it allows students to do is have a sort of two year extended research project throughout their end of their sophomore years through their senior year. So for my year specifically, it was.
Little strange because of COVID, but we got the decisions the winter of my sophomore year and our last thing was in the spring of my senior year. So it's really a community that you'd be a part of for most of your time at Lawrenceville.
And so essentially it enables you to do scientific research in different fields. So when I was applying there were three different programs that you could apply to. One is the hutch in Stanford scholars, which is the one that I ended up in, and that one is you're doing Type 2 diabetes research with a lab at Stanford University School of Medicine. And so you work with that lab. You get to do your own independent research on different genes that are affecting type 2 diabetes and then essentially you get to.
Present a poster at the end of your senior year on the research that you did. Another program actually allows you to travel to Scotland and do plant research, which is a really interesting option too. And then also you can apply.
For to just do your own independent research on whatever subject you want.
So.
Essentially, the first year of the program you.
Uhm, sorry, one second.
Your first year of the program you actually are at Lawrenceville. With the entire cohort, and they take you through a lot of basic skills. Like I remember we had some lessons on organic chemistry. We did like Environmental Research on like how clean our pond water was at Lawrenceville.
And then also we did genetic research on plant DNA and so that's sort of like your intro. It's like a lot of the techniques you'll need for your research and then the next summer you do a six week internship with whatever program that you applied to. So for me with the three other people that were heqing Stanford scholars, I was on zoom calls with the professors at Stanford and and then we were doing a lot of research through papers. And unfortunately, since we were virtually all of the lab work had to be done at Stanford, and so we actually didn't get to do that.
But usually you'd be in the lab for six weeks doing research. Having zoom calls with these professors, and then at the end being able to produce your own poster and present that to the school community. And it's definitely a real. It's definitely a great way to get involved with real world science before you're out into the real world. And it's. It's a really unique opportunity to be able to for one like work at like like Med school Lab when you're in high school. So being able to have that experience like it really gives you a sense.
The.
Yep.
Like of like, what scientific research can look like, and I think one thing that's maybe an unintended consequence, but actually really helpful is that it'll usually help you know if a career in science is for you, or if it isn't for you, like like I know that like my my teacher who also ran the program used to joke like I'm losing half of my kids to English every year, because from that experience you really do get a sense for what working in the lab is like and you get a sense of whether or not that.
That's for you, so I'm really grateful that I had the experience of working in there, but I also definitely know that I'm more towards the humanities and social sciences thing now, so it definitely helps to sort of clarify like what you want to do. And it really is a great real-world experience that you apply to as well.
I think that.
The fabulous and I think that's one of the nice things about Lawrenceville and that it kind of thrusts you into opportunities like this. And so now you do know you have a little bit of a leg up. 'cause now you know.
Heading into Harvard that you are a humanities person, leaning person and so will great. UM, so a couple more questions coming into the chat. What did you do with the sports business club? So why don't you tell us a little bit about what that club was and what it does and what you did for it?
Definitely so the sports business club is another one of my favorite clubs, but essentially I'm I'm very interested in sports and also my brother is very interested in sports too. In a place where we had always been very interested is the business and the workings that sort of go unseen in the world of sports. Like often we see the games we see the finished products, but we don't really see what goes.
Into that and so this club was sort of created with the mission of exposing or not exposing, but exposing people to what goes on behind the scenes. So some of the events that we did, we held speaker series, so we've had an NBA Hall of Famer dicamba Mutombo come speak to us. We had the CFO of USTA.
Come speak to us, the chief revenue officer of the USTA come speak to us. We've gone to visits to different sports companies like we've been to Madison Square Garden. Again we visited the NBA.
So so again, we've done all sorts of events with different sports business people. We've learned from a lot of speakers and even last year we did something recent, which was a. It's actually a sports business pitch for a new NBA team, and so people would sort of form their teams of four people do all of their market research and then eventually create a proposal to be judged by us. And we had the Deputy Commissioner of the NBA help judge our project for that too.
And then also on campus we host some fun sports tournaments like we have a an annual ping pong tournament that we have here with food trucks. And there's like 12 tables and like it's like a 3/4 hour event and people would just come out like play some ping pong. Have fun, have food and like get to enjoy that as well. So we're sort of focused on one like bringing like different types of sports to the words of community. But then also like making sure that people were exposed to what a career in sports or a career in sports business.
Could look like too.
Fabulous, wonderful, so another question here is kaylin, can you give an example of how the Harkness method works for math and science classes?
Definitely for math in particular. I know, I know. It's actually surprisingly a little more frequent for math, and it is for some of the science classes for science classes. It's usually a mix. Some things like you do end up like having to like lecture on like it's. It's generally pretty hard to like, like extract through Harkness, like something like. I don't know, like the Krebs cycle from like like people that like background in it. But I I think I'll focus more on math since I think that's a place where was really helpful.
For me again, as I I sort of talked about a way that a lot of the math classes are taught is that you're actually given a problem before you're taught, like the textbook material on how to solve it, and So what they encourage you to do is to collaborate with your peers and to work through these problems using what you've already learned from the past in the class to sort of work through these new things specifically with things such as like algebra or precalculus or calculus where a lot of what you're learning is based.
On the previous chapters, before you, it's sort of requires you to go through a lot of, like the thought processes and like create those thought processes on your own and with your classmates. So sort of through collaboration, you'll find that it's often a lot easier than you think to work with people through some of the logic and math that you might have otherwise just picked up like without context from a textbook. And so I know.
Mr Ferguson, one of my my favorite teachers for math would actually on the first day of all of our classes, start us off like with a math Riddle like he would start us off with math riddles from like competition math that didn't require you to have, like any prior experience, and like something like pre calc or calc and he'd give us the problem and then he'd sort of like give it to us for homework like he introduced it at the end of the class and then just have us work through it with our classmates. And so through. Things like that, you sort of learn.
A lot of process of mathematical reasoning that you wouldn't get from just a regular lecture style class, and it also really teaches you to, like, think through problems. So for example, when something on the test isn't exactly reflection of a problem you've done in homework, you have the skills from having to like reason through problems with your classmates to therefore go through and like go through that problem on your own, which I think also if you do want to do something with math in the future, definitely prepares you for what more real world math is going to look like, 'cause it's often not going to be.
It's clear cut as a solution as like an example problem in a textbook, so making sure that you're able to take what you know and apply that and work with other people is a really important part of math instruction I think. And one of the ways that Harkness at Lawrenceville functions in a math classroom.
Awesome, I think that's I think that's really helpful because I think more often than not and the majority of interviews I have that is a question I receive. You know, Harkness makes sense to a lot of people in the humanities. But then, how do you do it in these other spaces? And I think your answer just definitely hit the nail on the head so.
Another question we have here is what is 1 activity you enjoyed that you were introduced to at Lawrenceville? So something, perhaps you hadn't ever done before and you tried for the first time at Lawrenceville.
Definitely so many of them, but I think one that's that's really relevant to what I do now and something that I discovered at Lawrenceville was being able to work with a literary magazine. Because, again, I. I think as I as I talked like I, I was very interested in writing. But again, I didn't really know like how that would fit in either to like a a formalized extracurricular space or like a career space like it had really again just been things like I would like write to myself, or like like I'd like.
See like people in journals but never really know like how you get to that.
And I think one thing that helped me at Lawrenceville was having so many like literary magazines that I could join and get the experience of being able to like read poetry and read prose, and being able to like showcase like the talent of our community through that sort of combining like my love for writing with an extracurricular opportunity and so working for our schools literary magazine, the lit. I was a poet, reader and a poetry editor there. And that was the first time that I've done anything like that, so it's like I'd only ever like.
Written poetry for myself before that.
They're getting involved with that like it's it's really like inspired me to like and it was definitely one of my favorite activities. Like sometimes I would postpone my work by like doing some of my ratings or editing for the magazine. And now today I actually like work part time at a literary magazine reading poetry, so that's something that I was introduced to at Lawrenceville that I'm now continuing here. So it's definitely like there's so many opportunities to like, explore new things and sometimes to find out where your passions.
Fit in areas that you didn't previously considered, so I'm really grateful to the LRT and for Lawrenceville for giving me that experience because I definitely see that something that I might end up doing in the future.
How awesome, I didn't know, that's why I didn't know you were doing that for work. That's awesome. That's so cool kaylin. OK, another thing, if you could change anything about Lawrenceville or at Lawrenceville, what would that be?
Uhm?
I will give a small answer first, and then I might build off of that. I think one thing would be cutting out the six class sophomore year and it's a really small thing, but sophomore years is it's so difficult it it definitely. If you want time management training skills, sophomore year will definitely give it to you. But essentially you have six classes as opposed to usual 5 and you don't have a free period unless I know it's getting more popular to take five classes.
Sophomore year now, but sort of when I was there it was a very like rare occurrence.
And it it depends for some people, because math and languages you can actually place out of and so like if you sort of take like like a general like the regular track, I would say like you'll usually be in language level two and then either in like algebra 2 or geometry and so like it it's somewhat packed, but like still like manageable for me. I found it very difficult because my software I actually ended up in calculus BC and then like are like college level Spanish.
Which means that the workload was was a lot, and so while Lawrenceville is definitely like pushing to challenge you, and it definitely will challenge you.
I definitely think that that level of challenge is not like necessary for that, and when I actually end up running for like President my senior year and that was sort of one of like my main things was like like making sure to like reduce that class load. I, I think, sort of expanding beyond that. More like that smaller thing like so just like continuing to like create like a balance between like creating a very challenging and rigorous academic environment. And also like making sure there's like time for like students to like rest and be involved with things. And clearly it's definitely very possible.
I found that I was definitely able to like make that balance, but even something like like making more like flexibility with classes like having for example like out of one of the trimesters, maybe being able to take four classes one trimester like instead of five like I know here like in college like I take four classes semester and and it doesn't feel like I'm I'm missing too much either like even having that option to like take one less class even in one or two semesters a year. 'cause like create more opportunities for someone to say go and try out a new sport.
Learn more about like what they want to do outside of that, so that would sort of be like my main thing is just like adjusting how many classes you take and how like rigid it is with that. But even that's like sort of like I, I think a small fix, and I definitely still think there is lots of room for balance at Lawrenceville.
Fabulous, well thank you so much Kyle. And so any last closing remarks from you or closing comments of encouragement to all of these future future applicants.
Oh yes, I remember this this time very clearly. It's very scary like applying to schools like I tell you, four years later, applying to college doesn't get any better, but definitely like as much as you can. Try and enjoy the process, especially try and enjoy writing your essays of like.
It can really be a good time for you to like like one like learn a lot about yourself and for me like they were definitely like a great place for me to explore and put a lot of time into. And then also like one for those of you that like come here like in the future. Like definitely make the most of your experience. I would definitely say that my four years at Lawrenceville were absolutely some of the best of my life, if not my best. So definitely like, make sure to take advantage of that. And for those who may unfortunately not end up here, it's definitely not the end.
Of your world like where you go to high school especially and even where you go to college later down the line isn't going to like determine who you are as a person and you can still pursue whatever you want regardless of where you where you end up. So definitely it's like 1 relax through the process. Definitely of course still take it seriously, but to have some more fun with it in a way that we're often not encouraged and then also to not be too too concerned about the outcome because they're still off course plenty of things that you can do regardless of whether or not you you come to.
But definitely it it was a really, really great experience here. So let's say that's here in my last closing remarks. But yes, thank you. Thank you all so much for coming today.
Christine Ding
08:21:22 PM
Our final fall Discover L'ville session is tomorrow at 4:00 PM - Scholarship Aid. We will return to our schedule after Thanksgiving break.
Christine Ding
08:21:41 PM
https://www.lawrenceville.org/admission/travel-events
Wonderful, I'm just about to put some links and some reminders in the chat, but I did want to say that our final discover Elville session is tomorrow at 4:00 PM. It's focusing on scholarship AIDS or director of scholarship aid. Lauren Gold will be there to provide some information and answer any questions you might have. Here is the link to register.
For that event and any of our upcoming events, we are taking a much needed break next week for Thanksgiving and then we will kick things off on December 1st with our session on academics and our session on student clubs and kaylin and I actually started our great friendship last year when he sat on our information session about our clubs because as you can see.
In his bio he had his hand in one or two, so he was a huge asset for me last year in that regard so.
A couple extra things just for you all to remember some some bookkeeping, so we are at less than two months away from our January 15th application and scholarship aid deadline. January 15th is that day and then just as a reminder, we will then notify everyone on March 10th and you all have until April 10th to inform us of your decision. What I know is that it takes.
Christine Ding
08:23:19 PM
https://www.lawrenceville.org/admission/travel-events/discover-lville-series
A lot to figure out where you want to go, what you want to do and where you want to apply to. So we are offering all of these info sessions, knowing that every little piece of Lawrenceville that we can give you might help. So please register for many more of our Discover Lawrenceville series. And then if you missed one that we've already had right, here is our recordings. And so most of the recordings will be up.
Within about 48 or 72 hours, we're all only human and and, but those will be there for you to view at your leisure. So once again.
I'm Christine Ding. I'm so glad that you all got to meet one of our Lawrenceville alumni treasures, Kyle and Tatum. I hope what he had to say tonight really provided you a good insight into all the things that you could do at Lawrenceville. So with that, have a wonderful evening. Have a great end of your week and have a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving.
If that is something you'll be celebrating, and as always go big red thank you all so much for joining bye bye.