Visiting Speakers at the Middle School
Berkeley Carroll students seek to understand perspectives other than their own as they strive to develop as critical, ethical and global thinkers.
In support of this pursuit, we bring many speakers from different disciplines to speak with our students and answer their questions. We have seen authors, scientists, activists and more pass through our halls to talk about their careers, the world at large and how our students can grow and make a difference.
Many of the speakers that come to Berkeley Carroll live and work in Brooklyn or other areas of New York City, but the world is our classroom — in recent years we have heard from speakers from as far away as Sierra Leone thanks to technology such as Skype.
Past Visiting Speakers
Qutaiba Idlbi
Qutaiba Idlbi is a researcher and refugee awareness activist specializing in social psychology and cultural appropriations in the Middle East. He engaged students in a discussion about free speech and what life was like in Syria under a dictator.
Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair
Award-winning author and psychologist Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair discussed healthy tech habits with Middle and Upper School students and parents.
Gyasi Ross
Gyasi Ross, author, speaker and storyteller from the Blackfeet Nation, spoke to Middle and Upper School students about the power of storytelling to create change.
Sally Frishberg
Holocaust survivor (and BC grandparent) Sally Frishberg told the eighth grade how she and her family lived through WWII in Poland, hidden in a farmer's attic.
U.S. Navy Woodwind Quartet
Middle schoolers heard from, and learned about the careers of, musicians in a U.S. Navy woodwind quartet.
Neal Goldman
Neal Goldman visited a fifth grade humanities class to discuss his involvement in the Selma to Montgomery march of 1965 as a law student who advised The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on legal matters surrounding the march.
Shehab Chowdhury
Shehab Chowdhury, a community engagement fellow at UNICEF, spoke to sixth graders about how important water is to everyday life and how UNICEF helps provide a clean supply of it to people around the world.
Google visited BC to introduce Middle School students to Google Cardboard, a low-cost virtual reality system intended to encourage interest and development in virtual reality technology.