On Nov. 5, this year’s Steiner Speaker, Eric Liu, will visit the Upper School. Liu is a writer, lawyer, and the founder and CEO of Citizen College. Much of his life’s work is driven by the fact that he is a second-generation American.
Liu’s visit falls on election day, which was an intentional decision. Social studies department chair Beth Calderone stated, “We wanted some sort of speaker who would help us think more broadly about the election, not just from a narrow, partisan perspective but also sort of a larger perspective around citizenship and democracy.”
In his promo video for the school community, Liu stated, “elections are a time period of heightened enthusiasm for the power that we have to make, but at the same time, citizenship doesn’t just start or end with voting, and so I’m excited to meet with you to keep building on your broadening understanding of what it means to live like a citizen in this moment in our country.”
Sophomores are already familiar with some of Liu’s work. Every student taking Citizenship & the Nation this semester read his book “You Are More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen” over the summer as preparation for the course. Calderone shared, “We thought, what an amazing opportunity for our 10th graders to actually have an opportunity to hear from the author of their summer reading book as well.”
Calderone and Associate Head of School Anne Rubin were introduced to Liu at a conference at the Stanford Divinity School. “Eric was there,” Calderon stated, “We heard him speak, and it was a small enough space that we were able to interact with him.”
The Steiner Speaker is chosen by a committee of faculty and students every other fall. Calderone says, “The Steiner lecture… has a long tradition of bringing in speakers who are going to expand our thinking and open our minds to new perspectives, and we think [Liu] will do that as well.”
Liu will be meeting with one of N’Jai An Patters’ Citizenship and the Nation classes on the morning of his visit before transitioning to speak with the whole Upper School. He will also meet with members of the Parents’ Association and students from the Election Squad.
In his video, he said, “I cannot wait to spend time at the Upper School on election day to witness students participating in the Minnesota mock election hosted by your student election squad.”
On Nov. 4, he is giving a presentation and book signing at the Hopkins campus, starting at 6:30. This is open to all members of the school community.
Madhav Kumar ‘27, who read Liu’s book this past summer said, “It was a decent book. I really think he showed multiple ways on how people can exercise their political power.” However, Kumar doesn’t think the book is only positives. “I think the book is very left-wing biased. It wasn’t very enjoyable in that sense because he’s just implying left wing views,” claimed Kumar. Overall, Kumar had mixed feelings about Liu’s book.
