Friday Speaker at GFA: Interview with Ms. Hunt
By Juliette Murphy 24’
Friday Speaker is an opportunity for members of the GFA community to share about what is important to them. Some recent speakers include junior Jared Lessing, who gave a powerful speech about the importance of democracy, and juniors Elise McCormick and Colin Howard, who spoke about their involvement with the Builders Beyond Borders organization.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Mrs. Hunt, who co-leads the Friday Speaker program along with Ms. O’Grady, and get some insight into the process of creating and promoting Friday Speaker.
How do you find your speakers?
Speakers arise in a number of different ways. Most often, students just come to us and share their ideas, but many times, we are approached by a faculty member or a friend recommending someone in the community to share a story.
What have been some of the highlights of the program so far?
This year’s speakers have all shared stories that have really left a big impression on us as a community, so I wouldn’t want to choose one of them over another, of course, but historically we’ve had some really great ones. We had a male student and a male faculty member talk about what it meant to them to be feminist, and we’ve had stories that students have shared about lessons they learned through the loss of a loved one. One, in particular, was a grandfather who just instilled a lot of values, and another was an uncle who was sadly killed in a drunk driving accident. Not that we need awareness that drinking and driving is bad, but that really just pushed the message of how dangerous it can be, and that’s really important. We’ve also had some performance- based speakers: an opera singer, a piano player. Those are always fun as well.
What are some challenges you’ve faced curating this series?
I personally put a lot of pressure on myself to have a speaker ready every Friday. I take it a little personally when, for one reason or another, there’s not a speaker. I sort of feel like I’m letting the community down, and that’s really hard. But a great deal of time and energy goes into recruiting the speakers, revising their drafts, practicing with the speakers to make sure that they’re ready to give the best presentation they can each week.
What kind of stories do you feel our school could benefit from hearing?
I actually want to reflect this question back to the student body. What’s really important to us is that we’re bringing stories to you that you want to hear.
Do you have any advice for someone who has a story to share but doesn’t feel comfortable going up on stage?
Having been in this position myself, I would say that really a huge sense of pride comes from sharing your story and from receiving the positive feedback from the community. You know, all throughout the day, people are coming up to you and talking about your story, which is really nice. It does take a lot of courage, but I would say that the reward far outweighs any risk that there is. It’s really a great time for growth.
What are your goals and hopes for Friday Speaker?
I just think that Friday Speaker is a great opportunity to engage students as partners, as we try to do here at GFA. And really, we hope to give everybody a voice, a space where they feel like they can be heard.
Anything exciting coming up for Friday Speaker that you can share?
Again, this is a great opportunity for anyone reading to be our next exciting speaker. We do have a number of volunteers in the queue, but we’re also in need of a lot of speakers. We don’t have a really full calendar, but note that there will be exciting speakers on the horizon.
If you have a story you’d like to share, you can email Mrs. Hunt at ehunt@gfacademy.org or Ms. O’Grady at eogrady@gfacademy.org.
