The TREP$ program, which kicked off in September, culminated in the TREP$ 2025 Marketplace, where our sixth-grade entrepreneurs set up shop in the Wharton Lessin Dining Hall to sell the wares they’d planned, received feedback on, prepped, and learned how to promote. Chef Alex Stanko advised the students who opted for food-based projects about what makes for a successful business. “With food, we’re never late,” he said, adding that it’s essential to “think about what you’re making and how best to do it.” Ellie S. ’32 and Jasmine Z. ’32, whose business was brown sugar boba tea, seemed to internalize these suggestions, as they were the first business to sell out during the Marketplace! “We both really love drinking boba, and [our final product] turned out really well,” said Ellie, who decided with Jasmine that it was best to sell a single, widely popular flavor. In addition to tasty cultural foods based on family recipes, hot wings, and decorate-your-own cupcakes and gingerbread cookies, students sold stickers, charms, 3D-printed toys, bedazzled claw clips, dessert-scented slime, tote bags printed with original art, and more. Innovation Coordinator Ms. Larionoff, who facilitated the program, said one of the biggest takeaways from TREP$ is that sixth graders “learn resilience” as they overcome obstacles that will inevitably crop up as they go through this process. The capstone is that teams will donate all proceeds to a charity of their choice—because we aim to “make it better” in our community!

D-E recently hosted a daylong civics workshop for a cohort of D-E students and high school students from across the Tri-State area. The day offered a continuation of last month’s Day of Deliberative Dialogue in the Upper School, facilitated by our Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging in partnership with the Washington, D.C.-based Close Up Foundation. Students from Montclair Kimberley Academy, The IDEAL School of Manhattan, The Browning School, and School of the Holy Child in Rye, New York, participated in community deliberation on the right to protest on high school campuses. In the afternoon, they gathered in small groups to consider national policy proposals surrounding the central question of how, if at all, the government should reform immigration policy. The day concluded with a panel of experts from different political perspectives, who answered questions that students formed during their deliberations. According to Scot Wilson, Close Up’s VP of Academics, the goal is to “focus on deliberative dialogue as a skill that is fundamental to the Democratic process… and deepen our understanding of the challenges of making good decisions.” And that fits right in with our school’s mission, noted Dr. Ingram, Director of DEIB. Specifically, he said, workshops such as these “support the culture of deliberative engagement we’re trying to create here at D-E.” More to come!

D-E’s Upper School Student Committee on Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) is hard at work researching the effects of AI on metacognition (that is, a person’s thought processes).This student group was founded last year and is advised by Chief Innovation Officer Ms. Gross and Mr. Lucci, US World Language Teacher, with the goal of being a resource for the School regarding AI guidelines and understanding AI’s role in the classroom. SCAI meets in subcommittees during Activities Period to take real-world data to make real-life connections. Kudos to this student committee for leading the charge when it comes to helping to develop AI policy—and stay tuned for future findings and SCAI events!