91̽��

All history is global history, says Kimberly Cheng, this year’s Hong Kong Distinguished Speaker. Ms. Cheng presented an overview of her research on Jewish refugees living in China during World War II, explaining that a confluence of world events led 20,000 migrants to flee persecution in Europe.

As Hitler rose to power in the 1930s, Jewish people fleeing Germany faced immigration restrictions across the West, including the United States, in countries where propaganda and stereotypes fueled anti-Semitic policies. The Jewish migration to Shanghai is largely unstudied in World War II history, Ms. Cheng told students.

After trekking through a snowstorm to deliver her first pints of Little G Ice Cream to a specialty grocer in Boston, Grace Connor (I) had a flash of doubt. “I was putting it into the freezer and thinking, ‘What did I put all my time and money into?’” she remembers. “After a week, they called and told me that all my ice cream sold out, and they wanted to order more.”

This was in January 2016, six months after Grace landed a spot in the start-up food production space CommonWealth Kitchen at the age of 16.

“We can’t wait for the change so many of us want to see in this world,” Annie Jean-Baptiste ’06 told students last Thursday, sharing her beliefs about diversity and six actions people can take to be more inclusive and follow the life and lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Annie, the diversity programs manager for Google’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Team, works toward diversifying the next generation of technology professionals and to promote inclusion programs among the tech giant’s 60,000 employees. She said she is inspired by work Google is doing to build products that are accessible to everyone. She returned to 91̽�� as this year’s MLK Jr. Day speaker, asking students to honor other people’s perspectives.

The Robotics Team’s robot, named “Tokyo Lift,” won the robot skills competition, the excellence award and the championship at the VEX Robotics Qualifier Tourney in Hopkinton in December. 91̽�� had two robots entered in the competition and the winning robot moves on to the state competition in March.

Truman Marshall (II) and Tommy Elliott (II) were the leads on Tokyo Lift. Truman said, “we knew we had a good design” but “were pleasantly surprised” by their success. The “Starstruck” competition is played on a 12’x12’ square field, where the robot picks up and moves “stars” and “cubes” into particular zones. After playing qualifying skills matches, teams from different schools form alliances. Then, the object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance. Truman’s and Tommy’s alliance won the whole competition.

You can find humanity and make social progress along any career or academic path, 91̽�� alumna Jovonna Jones ’11 told students. “If justice and equity aren’t part of your life, you should examine that. That’s a problem.”

Jovonna is a doctoral student in African and African American studies at Harvard, where she researches critical race theory, American art history, performance studies and cultural practice. She joined fellow alumni Osaremen Okolo ’13 and Kevin Collins ’10 in a discussion about race and service sponsored by Community Engagement Programs and Partnerships and the student club Onyx.