It’s not every day that a fifth-grade student gets to hear from a high school senior who talks passionately about volunteering with a nonprofit in Africa, or a fourth-grade student enjoys a visit from a rocking student band with hits on Spotify. Yet those are exactly the kind of moments the Cultural Ambassador Series is designed to create. Conceived and led by Upper School English Teacher Alisha Davlin, the Cultural Ambassador Series flips the script on traditional mentoring. Instead of adults giving younger students advice from the top down, this program brings smart, passionate, and unexpected Upper School voices directly to the Lower and Middle School students. The goal? To spark curiosity, challenge assumptions, and plant seeds of inspiration.
“The idea was to get awesome seniors in front of Lower School kids,” shares Ms. Davlin. “Not just the superstars, but students who are doing so many other things outside of school that you wouldn’t even know about it unless they told you.”
That’s exactly what happened when Emily Dicks ’25, the first Cultural Ambassador speaker, took the spotlight last November. She spoke to fourth- and fifth-grade students about her work with a nonprofit, Mesha’s Village, that delivers backpacks and school supplies to students in Africa. The Lower School students were rapt with attention as she talked about the transformation she’s experienced by devoting her time and efforts into helping others.
“The idea was to put Emily in front of our Lower School kids,” Ms. Davlin says, “as a way to inspire them to think about things beyond just caring about being popular.” It worked. The Q&A afterward lit up with questions from students. The program soon expanded into the Middle School, bringing in speakers like Ella Wunderlich ’25, who shared how a Middle School computer science course took her academic journey from being a so-called “humanities kid” to pursuing engineering at Duke. Her message was clear: don’t be afraid to try something new. “The idea is to not think, ‘Well I’m just this,’ or ‘I’m only that,’ or ‘There’s only one way to get there,’” says Ms. Davlin. The series is meant to show that pursuing the unexpected has its own often-unexpected rewards.
Fittingly, the student experience that resonates in the series is not the valedictorians or varsity athletes, but the students with a story that defies expectations. “It’s really just kids doing cool things,” Ms. Davlin says simply. “It’s putting interesting students who are doing interesting things in front of Lower and Middle School students.”
The series has featured seniors offering a deep dive into Pingry’s robotics program, a behind-the-scenes look at the Upper School theatre program, and even a band’s jam session with a surprise musical guest, Grade 5 Math Teacher Austin Applegate. When the teacher and musician dashed out mid-set with his guitar, the Lower School students went wild with joy.
The impetus for the program came from none other than Alex Wong ’25, who once told Ms. Davlin that when he was a sixth-grade student, the Honor Board Chair Drew Beckmen ’19 spoke at length to his advisory group. Watching the senior field questions made an impression on him, and he later told Ms. Davlin, “I want to do that.” It sparked the idea that peer-to-peer influence has the potential to be more powerful than any pep talk from an adult. “I’m always of the belief that peers teach peers much better than adults teach children,” she says.
At its core, the series is about expanding the definition of what a successful high school life looks like. The speakers represent, in many ways, a rebellion against an unspoken peer pressure checklist: grades, sports, and popularity. In talking about their widely varied passions and pursuits, these seniors show there are many ways to thrive. The Cultural Ambassador Series gives younger students a window into what lies ahead, while giving Upper School students a chance to lead not by any title or social label, but rather by example.
“We have this resource of all these great superstar amazing kids who are doing a lot of very interesting activities,” marvels Ms. Davlin. “We have them present and answer questions, and the students really love it.” Indeed, the Q&As are lively, the hallways abuzz afterward, and the conversations continue well past the bell.
As younger students are discovering, when seniors share their time and interests with them, when they answer their questions and delight in talking about coding, performing, and helping others, their perspective expands. And who better to teach them that there is so much more to high school life than grateful seniors who discovered that wisdom for themselves.
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To contact the author: Sara Courtney
Photos by: Natalie Gonzalez