Steve Chester: History, Curiosity, and the Wider World

Upper School history teacher and Director of Global Studies Steve Chester explores how studying the past helps students better understand the present. From AP World History discussions about current events and civil discourse to transformative travel experiences in places like Japan, Germany, and Iceland, Steve shares how curiosity, critical thinking, and firsthand experience help students become more informed and empathetic global citizens.

Bullis Voices is produced by the Bullis Office of Communications in Potomac, Maryland.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Bulls Voicements, the podcast where we take you behind the scenes of what actually happens in our classrooms and why it matters. I'm your host, Mark Riffey, Director of Communications at BOLIS. And today, I'm talking with Steve Chester, upper school history teacher and director of global studies. Steve is a kind of teacher who wants students to see history not as a collection of names and dates, but as an ongoing story about human beings that have shaped and been shaped by the world around them. In his AP World History and Global History classes, students analyze primary and secondary sources, build arguments, compare societies, and wrestle with big questions about culture, conflict, economics, and social change across time and place. At the heart of Steve's teaching is a simple belief. Learning begins with curiosity. He loves asking questions, and he's worked to create a classroom where students are encouraged to do the same. Not to arrive at easy answers, but to better understand how the world works. That same philosophy extends beyond the classroom. As director of global studies, Steve organizes domestic and international travel experiences that help students see themselves as part of a much larger human story. Today, we'll talk about what first drew Steve to history, what a great day in his classroom feels like, and how studying the past and experiencing other cultures firsthand helps students better understand the present and become more thoughtful, informed, and empathetic global citizens. Steve, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Hey, thanks for having me on today.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

So I want to start by getting to know you a little bit better and understanding your path as an educator. Can you tell me about what first drew you to history?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Absolutely. You know, teaching is it's a really fun thing to do because history is just a big story. So you're just telling a story. The way that I look at it when I go in the classroom, I really love getting students to see why the story matters. You know, we always say history is doomed to repeat itself if we don't teach it and all that kind of stuff. But I I find it more the connections that they make when they look at, oh, this happened multiple times over the past, and it's like, yeah, you're you're finally getting there to what why history matters. You know, over the course of my career, I've taught hundreds, maybe thousands of students. I may have one history major that snuck in there when they went to college. But really uh the approach I take is, and I and I love history as a subject, but what I want them to get out of it is how to analyze things, why research matters, how to cite things, so that when they get to college, the stuff that they see when they get there is a lot easier than what they had here. They're more prepared than the next student uh sitting next to them.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Aaron Ross Powell How do you make current global issues feel relevant to students? And how do you connect them to what you're teaching them about the past?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Aaron Powell I have found that the key, especially in uh getting to teach history, we get to talk about politics, we get to talk about major world religions. It's really important to not shy away from these things. One of the big things that I really try and impress on the students is this idea of civil discourse. It is absolutely okay to disagree with someone, and that's you know, our media today and many of our politicians now. If you are a Democrat or if you are a Republican, then because we disagree, that makes somebody stupid. And that's when the conversation ends. I think it's really important for these students to grow up realizing you can disagree with someone and then go break bread with them, have a meal with them. You can be friends with people that you don't always agree with. Because you're going to disagree with someone at all times.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Bulls history teachers are experts at leading conversations around challenging subject matter, but still I imagine it can be hard when students have viewpoints that are in conflict with each other.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

It can be because our politics and our beliefs are very much shaped by what our parents believe. And so getting students to see the other side of politics at times and say, you may not agree with this, but here understand why someone thinks this. It starts with asking questions. Why this? Why do you believe this? What do you think the outcome of this is going to be? And so getting them to understand that their opinion actually really does matter. And most of the times, many times, students don't think their opinion matters because they're so young. But starting to form those opinions and even just having one is a very important thing for them to learn. And also they have to feel safe in the classroom to express these opinions, to know that somebody's going to disagree with you, and that's okay, because you have to defend your own opinion.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

What do you teach your students about analyzing sources and recognizing bias?

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Aaron Ross Powell That is one of the most fun things about teaching uh current events is the source of where it comes from is as important as the actual story. You can take any story, put it on Fox News, take the same story, put it on CNN.com, and the SKU will be completely different. So it's not just looking at one source, it's looking at multiple sources to see what are the facts and what are they trying to push on us to get us to believe a certain way about something.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Are there any pivotal moments in your world history classes that really shape the way that students engage with history and and maybe with the world around them more broadly?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yes, I love if I could teach an entire class on this, I would. But when we get to the Renaissance, which is generally students before we get there, talk about it's a bunch of boring statues and artwork that I don't care about. But looking at these transitions with Baroque art, Renaissance art, into the Flemish works, looking at not just what they painted, but why they painted it and how it was structured around the politics of the time, looking at how Van Eyck painted different things, looking at Diderot making the encyclopedia, Voltaire satirists, the amount of change, and like one thing we talk about, especially with the Age of Enlightenment, you know, women were not educated back then. And there was a concerted effort to not educate them simply because their duties were in the household. And so why did that change? It wasn't because of some sort of like moral clause where it's like, you know what, maybe we should educate women. It really was because a society realized the more education you have as a whole, the stronger and better the society will be. And so it's fun to see those catalysts of change in the Renaissance. When they look at this and they see what these people were actually doing at this time, they start realizing the relevance of how it shaped the world. From the Protestant Reformation to the Counter-Reformation to the Scientific Revolution into the Age of Enlightenment, looking at what natural rights and laws do we have as just being people? And so that shapes the way that we kind of look into the 16, 17, 1800s, into the politics today. One of the fun things to talk about is the Crimean Wars in the 1800s. This idea of the Ukraine and Russia have not just started fighting just now. It was all about having warm water ports. And so this is not a new phenomenon. The major things happening today with Israel and Palestine, tracing the history of that, this is not a new phenomenon that just started in 1948. You know, this is a historical thing that you trace back a long way. And so getting to talk about those types of things where students say, wow, this is more than just that one thing I saw that happened in the past year when I was in high school. How do current events shape the way that you design your lessons? We generally start with a current event in the beginning, kind of a this day in history or what is going on right now, even something as as small as, hey, Bobby Cox passed away this past weekend, talking about the influence he had on baseball, just simple things like that, showing them that it's worth just looking to see what's happening in the news. You don't have to necessarily understand everything, but keeping abreast with what's happening and then seeing why it happened. Because history, especially in AP world history, but also in global history, it's all about causation. These things don't happen in a bubble. It's all about this continuation of what's going on. Um we had a speaker, uh Dr. Singh, came and spoke to the AP World about uh Sikhism last month or so, and he had this great phrase about how history happens. He said, you know, these major these things can happen in your life. Somebody does something that really offends you. While that is a ruptured event in history, there's a continuation of what led to that event happening. So when we talk about racism, we talk about sexism, those things, you know, the the words that are said or the event that happened is a ruptured event. That was a continuation of all these things that led up to that event because it didn't just happen in a bubble.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

I guess you've kind of already answered this, but I'll ask it anyway. Why does our society need historians?

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Many great societies in history have collapsed shortly after a lack of emphasis and focus on the humanities. And so the significance and the importance of teaching history, of valuing history, doesn't mean you have to like it. There are many things I teach in class that it's like this is just not that exciting to teach. But it's important for the students to engage with the material, or we will forget what it was like to be us.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

You cover so much ground in the classes that you teach in terms of the history that you're moving through. Are there any entry points that from year to year tend to be places where students really get engaged?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

I love teaching the Cold Works, it's a lot more modern. If I could, I would always show the scene where Rocky beats up Ivan Drago, because I s I personally think Rocky IV is the best. But it's fun seeing like how we were so afraid, just even with the color red. And then students are like, why are they so afraid of this? Like what why weren't I said because the media is telling us every single person could be a communist, every single person was out to to hunt you. And I say, that's the reason you were in this seat right now, so you can question what's being laid out in front of you. You need to question your teachers, question what we're saying and why it actually matters, because that's how you're going to grow. Back then, students didn't really question. And so when we look at you know the Protestant Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, they say, Why were they just doing exactly what the church had to say? Because if there's only one textbook, and I'm the only one who can read it, you have to listen to what I'm saying. And so they weren't questioning what was going on. And so I would say major entry points that are really exciting for them, they become excited about the Renaissance. They don't start that way. Black Plague is always really fun because I get to show a little Monty Python scene from that one. They end up liking that, but generally World War I, World War II, we do a really fun project with World War II where they basically write an essay on an event, we turn it into a QR code, turn that into a flag where we stick it on a map, and then they have to make something in the bit lab with uh Mr. Ziegler that represents that event. Mr. Ziegler is basically like human AI. I have these ideas of projects, but he's the one that's able to bring them to fruition. So uh, if any of y'all are listening out here for faculty, utilize him. He is good.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah, no question. Matt Ziegler, the Bull's Innovation and Technology Lab coordinator, he's amazing. Uh and and he doesn't know this yet, but likely a future guest on the show. It's definitely the coolest classroom uh in the school.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

So yeah, uh World War I, World War II, and and Cold War. Students like getting into more modern type stuff simply because they have a a working knowledge of it, and they've heard these terms. I think that with them experiencing and living through COVID era, it was a lot easier to talk about what the Spanish flu really was post-World War I and like how many people died, the difference in uh medical advancements that came along with that. And so things that they are able to understand from their own perspective really gets them excited because sometimes they'll come into class and they'll have read something in the news. We were just talking about that. This is how it relates to it. It's like that's what I want them to do, make these connections.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

How do you keep up with the world around you? Is your curriculum constantly evolving?

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Yeah, I I believe that as teachers, we have to constantly be changing our lessons all the time. There are many times where I've taught a lesson, you know, first block of the day, I'm like, man, I killed that. That was so interesting. Try the same thing in the next class and it just flops. You know, at the heart of teaching, it's not the material. I mean, I'm very fortunate because I love teaching and talking about history, but we're teaching people, we're teaching kids. And so lessons change every single time you teach them. I have the framework of the things I've taught, I have the lessons that I really enjoy. But yeah, we're constantly changing it and how to apply that kind of stuff. Um, with AP especially, it's fun to take any type of singular event, a ruptured event in history and say, how is this similar to something that happened 300 years prior? Or how is it similar to something that happened two to three hundred years afterwards? How are these things repeating and why are people doing this? And so, I mean, really also I do love reading the news. It frustrates me sometimes. Oh, yeah. Just because the do you remember uh John Krasinski did a like a podcast video where he would just do 10 minutes of like really happy things?

SPEAKER_01 12:20

The good news show with John Krasinski. He started that during COVID.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yeah. And it was like, this is really nice to see like people are kind at times. Like it's it's it was just so great to see all these nice things that people were doing. Now we turn it on. The only real clickbait out there is how mad can I get at somebody who I disagree with. And so I also find it's really important looking at a lot of different sources. There, I mean, there are many sources I look at that I don't agree with. But that's good because I just can't have confirmation bias every time about what I do want to agree with. Aaron Ross Powell So day to day, what does your classroom look like? What's going on? Aaron Powell So I am not a big hand raiser. I want the students interjecting and talking. I know the sound of my own voice and I know the material that I'm teaching. It's really boring if I have to lecture. The only person more bored than them is me. Because I've talked about it so much. I want them to engage with the material, asking questions, talking. I want them building on what one student will say, agreeing, disagreeing, but really engaging the historical concepts. That's when the lesson is really fun. I think some of my best lessons are the ones that went in a complete different direction where it's like, I did not see us going there. Anything that stands out? Any stories? I do have a student this year, this has been really interesting. He asked me a lot of very interesting questions that that really make me think. For instance, how would World War II have been different if Russia still had Alaska? It's like, well, I've just I've never contemplated that one in my life. How would that have shaped the Cold War? I mean, we can think maybe Canada would have taken it from Russia because it's you know contiguous. I mean, Russia would have had a foothold in North America. So it's those are some fun ones where it's like, oh, I love being challenged like this because I'm I'm okay with not knowing an answer. I don't know everything about history. If you're one of my current students, you can disregard that information. I do. But I think those are the fun times when it's it's like, you're asking me something I've really never thought about. I've got to I've got to dive in and do some research myself. I enjoy teaching World War II and the Holocaust that also led into anti-Semitism in the United States afterwards, like in the 50s and 60s, colleges and high schools having quotas, you know, because we talk about the moral high ground that we had during the war. And absolutely we did. Anti-Semitism in the Holocaust was terrible. Um, but it didn't end there. The anti-Semitism that continued throughout the 50s and 60s, um, one thing that we don't talk about often is as the Holocaust was starting to really begin, you know, in the 30s, a lot of the Jews fled from Poland, and I think somewhere 200,000 came over to the U.S. by boat, and we just sent them right on back. We gloss over that kind of thing. And so I think it's really important, especially in American history, to talk about, you know, some of the really terrible things we've done as well. Um, so I really enjoy enlightening the students, like talking about that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

I know something that's important to you is giving students opportunities to experience that history firsthand, even when it's challenging. You are the director of global studies in addition to being a history teacher. How do you design trips that underpin what students are learning in the classroom?

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Aaron Powell You know, we always look for major shifts in education to try and stay ahead of the curve. I genuinely believe that experiential education is the next move. I can sit here and tell you all about the Sistine Chapel. You know, the history of uh Michelangelo, the popes, how long it took him to paint it, all that kind of stuff. But it's not till you're standing there in the chapel, looking up at that thing, seeing just how incredible it really is. You hear the cacophony of sounds, you smell the you know what the stone smells like, you try the food. That's the real teacher. And so my goal with Global Studies, and I love this part of the job, because I have a great passion for this. I want students traveling as much as they can. You don't know what the kids are gonna get out of this. You have goals. Like one of the trips that I am mapping out for the 26-27 school year is gonna be a Holocaust remembrance trip. We're gonna uh start in Berlin, go to Krakow, and then go to Prague. And so you know it's gonna be powerful, it's gonna be very emotional, but you don't necessarily know what kids might get out of this that you hadn't planned for. We can put everything in front of them, but you never know. Um we're doing another trip to Japan over spring break as well. Who knows? Maybe a student wants to study some sort of like East Asian studies in college, or maybe they want to go study abroad in Japan. Maybe they tried sushi for the first time. You never know what's going to come out of these, and I think that's what makes it so important. The engagement with all these different cultures, learning different cultural norms is so important to understand why people are like that.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

How do you guide students through some of those experiences? I imagine it can be difficult to teach about the Holocaust in the classroom, let alone standing outside of Auschwitz.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Aaron Powell For the past 15 or 16 years, after the AP exam, I've always shown Schindler's List. It is an extremely powerful movie, and many students haven't seen it. Um I sent an email to the parents letting them know we are going to be engaging with some really hard things here. And I tell them every time, don't worry, if you feel uncomfortable, if you're tearing up and you need to excuse yourself, by all means. I said, I cry every year. I've seen the movie 30, 40 times, and I cry every time when you just see how dehumanizing it is. And so I think that it's it really important for these students to engage with their emotions about this stuff. I think the other thing is you have to teach about these things because otherwise they're not going to know. And then it will happen again. And so not being afraid to talk about these hard topics. I want you to think for yourselves. That's what we're trying to teach them is being able to think, being able to be critical of things that are going on. And so I think that it's really important to talk about all this stuff. I mean, these genocides happen because we don't talk about a lot of them. And to really embrace the idea or to engage with the topic of racism and sexism, that's a taught behavior. Babies are not born sexist. They're not born racist. This is a taught behavior. And so how do we unteach this or teach away from it?

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Aaron Ross Powell How do you balance engaging meaningfully with history and and also having a travel experience that transcends the curriculum of the trip, so to speak?

SPEAKER_00 18:34

It is both one explaining what the purpose of the trips are. You know, this is what you're going to be engaged with. Now, with this uh trip that we're taking, there are still gonna be some, you know, I don't say lighter things, I was gonna say fun, but you know, lighter things because you want students to also experience German culture, uh especially German food. It is so good. I feel like you don't hear that often. No, I think German oh, I love German food. Oh my gosh. Specialists like this like delicious mac and cheese that we just can't seem to come up with. And I do love some craft extra cheesy. But so I want them to engage with the culture. I think one thing that's really important for them to see is how Germany has worked so hard not to distance themselves, but to recognize that this happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again. And so it's really balancing the purpose of the trip is to be brought in front of this information and these events and these places, while also getting to experience some other things too, because you don't want it to be so heavy that they come home completely depressed, but you also don't want to make light of this where it's all about being fun, and you know, because I've I've been hearing, and I haven't seen it because I haven't been there yet, but people taking like selfies and stuff at Auschwitz. There's a time and place. Um, this is a it's a somber ground where people were brought to be killed. And so I think helping them reconcile what you know appropriate times to do things like that is very important on these types of trips. And you know, all these trips they do have very different purposes. Um we have a girls' leadership trip that uh goes down to Costa Rica that's all about raising up young women here at school that engage with leadership. Japan's gonna be a lot more, you know, East Asian cultural element. We have a trip that we're looking to go to Thailand that's gonna be doing interviews, videos, uh creating uh a blog that basically looks at different cultural elements. I mean, that wasn't until I really when I went to China two years ago, just to see how different the culture really is. It is a completely different thing. I mean, I can't even come close to reading the the signs. And all I can say is, Shoshe, I can just say thank you a bunch of times. You're uh you're driving on the wrong side of the road. Shisha.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

How do trips originate? Like where where does the idea come from and then how does it turn into an experience that students can have?

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Aaron Powell The first thing I want to do is see where faculty want to take students. Um, because that's where the real passion will begin. After that, I generally look at how many trips can we offer that aren't going to poach from each other by making them all as different, as unique. Whereby if a trip doesn't make, then a student can join a different one, another trip, because we again I just want kids traveling all over the world. And so um after that I look at where do I think students would benefit from, and it stems a lot from what do I like teaching about. And so then I start looking at different countries I think that students would want to go to, uh, different experiences. There's some great STEM style trips uh that we're looking into, that I'm looking into in Spain. I think that could draw a lot of attention, especially with being STEM. Uh there's a really cool one in Germany where you can go around to all the different automakers and see how they make cars, and I think there's one in uh Italy as well. But it generally starts with the faculty because I think that if they're passionate about going there, they're gonna be passionate about sharing that. What experience do you hope faculty have on these trips? Getting to know students in a different way. You know, we get them for an hour a day, four times a week generally. But we all know that the students really come to get to know you outside the classroom, going to their baseball games, their lacrosse games. Taking them on trips like this, seeing them experience things and then sharing that experience. I mean, I think the shared experience is something where it brings a lot of students together. Uh when I took kids to Paris last year, uh we had seniors all the way down to freshmen. And then when they got back, you could see them talking in the lunchroom, talking about the different foods that they tried.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

I've gotten to go on three global studies trips in the 14 or so years that I've been here. In 2012, I was a chaperone slash documentarian on a Caring for Cambodia trip. And in 2016 and 2017, I led landscape photography trips to Iceland. On the Cambodia trip, we engaged with some really challenging history. We visited the killing fields, and it was a really powerful experience for our students. I think that part of what was so great about that trip was that we transitioned from learning about the genocide to doing a service project. It really felt like the right bridge. We saw and felt the history, and then we made connections and friendships with Cambodian people while we were serving them in some small way. And beyond that, you know, we also tried Cambodian food and experienced Cambodian culture. Um I'm still obsessed with this uh black peppery fish curry that we had one night. And then in Iceland, we went during the summer solstice, and being that far north, we had 24 hours of daylight. The sun would set for like an hour, but it wouldn't get fully dark. Because we were there for photography, we tried to make the most of the light by flipping our schedule. So we slept during the day and photographed all night. We had these epic golden hours that would start at like 9 p.m. and last like six hours. It it was incredible.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Well, and see just how impressionable it was for you. Now you think, I mean, I I didn't travel uh abroad until after I graduated high school. Same. And so you think about these students getting to engage with this as freshman sophomore juniors, and again, you never know what's gonna come out of it. Trying new food. Uh I'm going to Iceland in uh three weeks. I'm looking forward to trying shark fin. Yeah. I heard it doesn't taste great, but I just want to say that I ate a shark, kind of get back at Jaws for that one. Because you know, he ate Robert Shaw and I like that guy.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Aaron Ross Powell Iceland definitely a country not known for its food. However, the hot dogs are good. That's what everybody says, and it's true. And I heard the water is some of the best drinking water in the world. It is. I I don't want you to necessarily do this on my recommendation, but the times that I have been in Iceland, I have drank water directly from a waterfall without filtering it. Totally fine.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Well, on podcast part two, when you bring it back and the water is not as good, just know um listeners, you will listen to me for 30 minutes berate Mark for uh lying about the water.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Okay, getting back to the student experience of global studies. I imagine it's an important way that students also develop empathy. Can you talk about that aspect of global studies and what you hope students get out of it?

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Absolutely. So, like you brought up uh caring for Cambodia. I just finished teaching about the Cambodian genocide with Pol Pot and the Kamarouge. And so it's one thing to look at what Pol Pot did. I mean, he killed 25% of his population. Then to make it not look as terrible, he invaded Vietnam. You got to see it. You got to see the killing fields. Same thing with teaching about World War II. We talk about the Holocaust a lot, and rightfully so, we should. But seeing what Auschwitz looked like, um, when I teach about it each year, I show the like what the gate to Auschwitz looked like in the sign above it, and it says, Work will set you free. This false sense that people were actually going to leave there, and so they would work extra hard. Um we'd talk about propaganda. You know, that Adolf Hitler didn't come out in 1933 and immediately say it was all the Jewish people's fault. You have to train people that it wasn't their fault. Train the Germans that it wasn't their fault, then you start teaching the children. You know, it's the propaganda that led to this type of thing. So these types of experiences that the students see, it's like this is what real hate looks like. You know, many students don't know about the Cambodian genocide. They don't know about the Ugandan. Seeing these types of things, like, wow, somebody actually killed this many people. I mean, the fact that there is a place called the killing fields, seeing that and the and the empathy that develops from that will create this idea of we've got to make sure this doesn't happen again. It's powerful. And you know, engaging with the this material, because students might not have learned of that. Leading up to World War I, I always talk about the Namibian genocide with the Second Reich. This is where uh it's uh small town called Swakomund down in Namibia, and it's really where the Nazis learned to do during the Second World War by how they treated the people in Namibia, the Herero tribe. And so many students don't know about this. Um they showed I show this uh little video of now where all these people were where they were buried and they were buried in open graves, it's now become a doom buggy desert where people just go, you know, vacation. Now, would their mindset change about doing something like that if they knew what they were driving over? You know, and so now our students do know about this. And so it's something that's if anything, you want it to make them engage on thinking about their behaviors at times. Not that they're doing anything wrong, but like seeing what these places were, what these events were, and then seeing how we are moving forward from that, whether in a positive or negative way.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

All right. Can you give us a rundown of the trips on the horizon one more time?

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Yes. So uh we are looking at a Holocaust remembrance trip that will be over spring break. That's gonna be Berlin to Krakow and hopefully Prague afterwards. Uh another one, we are taking one to Japan that's also gonna be over spring break in 27. That will be I think it's an eight-day trip, one day being understanding what a 12-hour time zone change is. Um that's gonna be a cultural trip coming in, engaging with the culture. Thailand, we're looking at after Christmas, leading into the first week of school, uh, where they're gonna basically be interviewing people, looking at a lot of different Buddhist monks, talking with them, seeing what life is like in Thailand. We have uh Costa Rica Girls' Leadership Trip coming up. That will be over the summer of 27. And then Kathleen Adams, the department chair for the art department here. She and I will be heading to Iceland in three weeks to uh scout out a photography trip that we uh heard was a positive from a guy named Mark Riffie. What we're gonna look at. This is really excited about this. I know nothing about taking photographs, such that I don't even get to take photographs when I do my own travel. My wife does all the photographs, and so I am I would say I'm terrible, but that would say I have any skill at all. Maybe we should do a crash course. And that's what we're excited about. We're gonna this whole thing is geared towards students who have never done photography and teaching students how to do it. I love it. Cassie and Kathleen took a photography course on landscaping photography. You obviously know what you're doing, and so it's like uh listen, you're gonna learn how to take these types of shots going in there. And so I intentionally did not take the class because I want them to teach me so I can say, hey, if I can do it, I guarantee these kids can do it. Yeah. Because I am a technological moron. I have an iPhone, so I don't have to learn a new system.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Well, once you get through the menus, uh digital photography is pretty simple.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

So you say. Okay, bringing this back around to all of the work that you do with students in your various capacities as a bolus faculty member. I've been ending the interview by asking everyone, what do you hope never changes about bolus?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

I think that we do a great job of creating an environment where kids feel safe here. You can be of any background and you will have a place that you can get involved. I think that on the whole, our student body population is very kind in nature. Top athletes talking to you, top scholars, helping each other out, working in class together, side by side. We have a very diverse community, and that takes effort to do. And so I think that we have done a wonderful job of creating this diverse diversity in background. And so I hope that doesn't change because every student can feel welcomed here. Well, Steve, this was fun.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Thank you so much for coming on. No, thanks so much for having me, Mark. That's our show for this week. Thank you so much for listening and be sure to check back in next week for our next episode.