"We prepare students to engage in the world that is and to help bring about a world that ought to be."
Jill Abramson Appointed Visiting Scholar
Journalist and author Jill Abramson, who spent the last 17 years in the most senior editorial positions at The New York Times, is this year’s Visiting Scholar.
Dear Friends,
It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of journalist and author Jill Abramson, who spent the last 17 years in the most senior editorial positions at The New York Times, as this year’s Visiting Scholar at Friends Seminary.
This fall, Jill will work with our students through a series of lectures and workshops, including close editorial collaboration with our young journalists on the staff of our student newspaper, The Insight. On Thursday, November 20, Jill will deliver a public lecture in the Meetinghouse at 7 p.m. with a 6:30 reception in the Common Room. Also, later this school year, Jill will lead a panel discussion featuring several of the industry's leading journalists.
Jill is very familiar with Quaker education. Her daughter attended high school at Sidwell Friends when I was the Upper School Head there, another Common Quaker Thread running through our community. In my latest VodCast, Jill shares her appreciation for her daughter's Quaker education.
At The New York Times, Jill was the first woman to serve as Washington Bureau Chief, Managing Editor and Executive Editor. Before joining the Times, she was Deputy Washington Bureau Chief and an investigative reporter covering money and politics at The Wall Street Journal for nine years.
She is the author of three books including Strange Justice, which she wrote with Jane Mayer. Before joining Harvard's English Department as a lecturer teaching non-fiction narrative writing, she taught undergraduate writing seminars at Yale for five years and at Princeton. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and The American Philosophical Society.
We are thrilled that Friends Seminary students and our greater community will benefit from her deep passion for her field and her first hand understanding of Quaker education.
We look forward to welcoming Jill.
All best,
Bo Lauder
Principal
All best,
Bo LauderPrincipal
p.s. The student newspaper, which Jill will be guest editing during her residency, is still looking for Upper School student reporters and photographers. If your child is interested in journalism, please encourage them to contact our Director of Communications, John Galayda, who is co-advisor of The Insight.
About Friends' Visiting Scholar Program
As a school committed to an innovative and dynamic curriculum, the Visiting Scholars program, which is funded in part by an endowment created during the Lift Every Voice Campaign, provides the ideal curricular enhancement; in an intimate setting, our students have the rare opportunity to meet and learn from experts in their fields. The impact of this experience will further inspire and motivate them to go out and “bring about the world that ought to be." Past scholars include journalist Jeffrey Toobin, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and architect Charles Renfro.
Friends Seminary actively promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in all its programs and operations, including admissions, financial aid, hiring, and all facets of the educational experience. To form a community which strives to reflect the world’s diversity, we do not discriminate on the basis of race or color, religion, nationality, ethnicity, economic background, physical ability, sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation. Friends Seminary is an equal opportunity employer.
Friends Seminary — the oldest continuously operated, coeducational school in NYC — serves college-bound day students in Kindergarten-Grade 12.
