This week’s Middle School Assembly was a great example of cross-divisional collaboration at D-E, with two Upper School (US) students presenting their talks from last month’s TEDxDwight-Englewood School event and an introduction to Digital Wellness. This year’s TEDx executive producers Soham Bafana ’25 and Georgia Unger ’25 gave brief remarks on the event-planning process, introduced speakers Michael Lihanda ’28 and Lucas Brown ’25, and announced next year’s executive producers—Madigan Kacmar ’26 and Krishnav Tapuriah ’26.

Michael’s talk discussed the idea of permanence, which included his reflection that “maybe some things are supposed to be fleeting.” Lucas, who previously did a TED Talk in 5th grade on access to clean water, said he decided to focus on a topic more personal to him—comparison being the thief of joy. His central message was that “success is not a straight line.” 

Georgia then spoke briefly about kicking habits, the most recent of which was overusing her phone. She remarked on the addictive nature of devices and discussed her Phone Cleanse initiatives at D-E, for which 130 US students so far have participated. MS Principal Jonathan Davis concluded the assembly with final thoughts on the themes he took away from the presentations—the importance of “living in the moment” and “working on being the kind of friend who supports your friends.”