Facilitators: Javier Rivera, Siena LaGambina ‘26

Join Anna Deavere Smith for an informal Meet & Greet and Photo Op! Get your copy of Twilight signed. This breakout is only offered in the first breakout session.

Session Leaders: Laura Electa Hayes, Inez Parra, Jessica Sanchez

Student Facilitator: Graciella Carpinteyro ‘28

This session offers an inside look at Homeboy Industries through the lived experiences of three staff members working across various specialties and departments. The presentation will begin with an overview of Homeboy Industries’ mission and the comprehensive wraparound support services it provides, followed by personal reflections from the presenters on their positionality, facilitating classes, and supporting participants within the organization. Grounded in kinship, the session will also thoughtfully examine areas where Homeboy Industries continues to grow—particularly around gender and sexuality—inviting participants into a nuanced conversation about advocacy, care, and institutional transformation within community-based reentry work.

Session Leader: Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox

Student Facilitators: Makayla Carpinteyro ‘26

Grassroots campaigns are the heart of a true and meaningful democracy. These participatory movements have the unique ability to counter authoritarianism by introducing community oversight to overturn unjust systems. Mobilizing communities helps to build trust and long-term relationships, which establishes the sustainable power needed to overcome other systemic imbalances. Shifting control from top-down bureaucracies to local collective action within the community empowers a kind of resiliency that can outlast political cycles. This session will focus on a statewide Senate campaign in Connecticut that had to overcome institutional favoritism, corruption, and bias – and the success of which is directly tied to grassroots support and mobilization of the local community.

Session Leaders: Shabana Basij-Rasikh, Abbey Turniten

Student Facilitator: Violet Lima ‘26

Join the Founder and Head of the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA) for a discussion around the importance of education in building a movement for social change.

Session Leader: Nechelle Wong

Student Facilitators: Mari Bonner ‘27, Kira Testa ‘27

This breakout explores Asian fetishization as a form of racialized sexism rooted in stereotypes and media representation. Participants will examine how fetishization affects identity, relationships, and safety for Asian and Asian American people, especially women, and discuss ways to recognize, challenge, and disrupt it in everyday life and broader gender justice work.

Session Leader: Ruchira Gupta

Student Facilitator: Alexa Simon ‘26

Join author and educator Ruchira Gupta for an interactive writing workshop exploring the power of personal narratives in driving social change. This session will leverage the power of storytelling to shed light on complex issues, drawing insights from I Kick and I Fly and The Freedom Seeker. We will engage in meaningful discussion and a practical writing exercise using three carefully curated prompts focused on the critical themes of sex trafficking and migration. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of narrative as a tool for empathy and a draft of their own impactful writing.

The session will incorporate discussion points derived from the two books to provide context for the themes of personal narrative and social issues. The interactive portion of the session will include a small writing workshop featuring three distinct prompts designed to explore perspectives on sex trafficking and migration, allowing participants to use their voices to respond to these challenging issues.

Session Leaders: Honorable Fama Ba, Honorable Daba Wagnane

Facilitators: Moussa Bocoume, Gaia Braun ‘27

This two-part breakout session examines Senegal’s remarkable leadership in advancing women’s rights through legal reform, education policy, and cultural dialogue. Anchored in Senegal’s 2010 Law on Parity—now recognized globally as a model for gender equity in political participation—the session moves beyond legislation to explore how policy becomes practice, and how representation becomes lived transformation.

Session Leader: Hugo Slim

Student Facilitators: Chloe Kesler ‘26

This breakout challenges the only-human ideology of life-saving in the traditional humanitarianism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Instead, it argues for an all-life approach to humanitarian aid which recovers traditional pre-industrial worldviews of indigenous people in a new ecological humanitarianism for today's climate and nature emergency. The session will argue for a new internationalism that moves beyond the idea of an "international community" to a new sense of "Earth Community" and will explore ways to give Nature a bigger seat at the table in twenty first century diplomacy through new forms of diplomatic representation in Earth Embassies and Ocean Embassies, and new rights of nature alongside human rights.

Session Leader: Lena Winters ‘06

Student Facilitator:  Neta Oranim ‘27, Isobel Romanek ‘27

We’ll explore how setting boundaries aligned with our values supports mental health and well-being, and our (romantic and platonic) relationships. Together, we'll learn tools and tips to communicate decisions from a place of empowerment.

Session Leader: Elizabeth Spies

Student Facilitators: Mae Sandler ‘27, Lucia Birnbaum ‘28

This breakout traces the history of reproductive rights as a site of power, control, and resistance. Participants will explore how bodily autonomy has shifted across time, and will have a chance to learn about the current state of reproductive rights around the globe, especially in our country. We will examine whose bodies have been regulated or protected, how these histories inform present-day struggles, and ways to work towards reproductive justice NOW.

Session Leader: Candace Trinchieri

Student Facilitator: Nora Kohan ‘27

Many people care deeply about justice but feel overwhelmed by the scale and complexity of the problems they see in the world. This breakout session focuses on how change actually happens, not all at once, but through awareness, choice, and collective action. We often think of storytelling as something that inspires action, rather than something that is action. In reality, lived experience and narrative actively shape justice movements across generations.

In this session, we explore how stigma and silence become systemic barriers, and how personal narratives can challenge culture, inform policy, and act as powerful catalysts for lasting change. We'll also examine how performative responses to injustice can drain energy, distort priorities, and ultimately slow the systemic change they aim to support. Through reflection and discussion, participants are invited into an honest conversation about moving from empathy to impact, and to consider how stories, their own and others’, can move systems, not just hearts, as they think about their role in advancing human rights across generations.

Session Leaders: Julia Aks, Melissa Berton, Rico Herre, Steve Pinder

Student Facilitators: Addie Feuerstein ‘28, Jenna Thomas ‘26

Spanning documentary and narrative films, humor and hard-won realism, this breakout brings together filmmakers across genres and continents united by a shared goal: breaking the silence around menstruation and turning story into change. In this moderated panel, join Melissa Berton, Executive Director of The Pad Project and producer of the Oscar-winning documentary short Period. End of Sentence. and co-producer of the New York Times Op-Doc A Long Line of Ladies, alongside Rico Herre, director of the award-winning narrative feature Impure, which premiered at the United Nations on Menstrual Health Day in May 2025, and Julia Aks and Steve Pinder, the filmmakers behind the Oscar-nominated live-action short Jane Austen’s Period Drama. 

Together, they explore how humor, humanity, and deeply personal storytelling dismantle menstrual stigma across cultures, and influence real-world policy. Aspiring filmmakers and storytellers are warmly welcomed, particularly those interested in how creative work can move audiences and institutions. Featuring brief film excerpts, this conversation underscores why sharing stories from every place, and in every form, is essential to changing norms and advancing dignity for all.

Session Leader: Esmé Bianco

Student Facilitators: Harlowe Goddard ‘29, Daphne Lima ‘29, Ivy Schur ‘29

In this transformative workshop, join acclaimed actress, survivor, and activist Esmé Bianco in an intimate exploration of art as a powerful tool for healing from gender-based violence. Through storytelling and creative expression Esmé will guide participants in understanding how art can provide a safe and empowering outlet for processing trauma, reclaiming identity, and fostering resilience.

Drawing from her own deeply personal healing journey, Esmé will share how artistic practices have not only shaped her path to recovery but also ignited a deeper sense of purpose and advocacy. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own stories, engage in hands-on creative exercises, and explore the transformative potential of art as a medium for self-expression and collective healing.

This workshop offers a compassionate and inspiring space to connect, create, and envision a future grounded in healing and hope, all in a trauma informed space.  Suitable for participants 15 years and older.

Session Leader: Andrea Berloff

Student Facilitator: Sasha Filus ‘27

Let’s chat about gender in movies! What makes a main character “likable"—and why does it matter? We will examine how audience expectations shape our responses to protagonists by comparing Tony Stark in Iron Man and The Avengers with Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel. Although both characters share traits such as confidence and power, they are often judged very differently by audiences and critics. We will explore how ideas of “likability” are influenced by gender, why audiences are more willing to embrace flawed or arrogant male heroes, and how these expectations affect which characters are seen as relatable or marketable. We will also consider how “likability" connects to profitability in Hollywood, shaping casting decisions, franchise development, and the disproportionate number of male-led films. Ultimately, we will ask who gets to be a main character—and what that reveals about gender, power, and storytelling in popular films.

Session Leader: Sacha Maccabee, Mads Zygarewicz

Student Facilitator: Charlotte Kreillkamp ‘29

The late Buddhist monk and author Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, “When you ask the question, 'Who am I?'—if you have enough time and concentration—you may find some surprising answers." The moment we are born, we receive a sex designation that creates assumptions which will profoundly shape our experience of the world. Soon after, conditions of race and religion, class and nationality, family and community begin to mold our senses of who we are. We do not necessarily consent to, nor choose, the categories we are told describe us. And yet, we must learn to live within them, and against them. How much of who we are, then, is truly us and ours? As a group, we will pause and offer each other some "time and concentration" and reflect on what might seem very simple questions: Who am I? What is my name? What do I like about myself? Does society value the things I like about myself? How do gender norms & expectations influence our sense of self worth?