2023 International Convocation

By Talia Tom '23

Cate’s annual International Convocation celebrates all heritages at Cate and is open to anyone in the community to share a part of their culture. This year’s convocation included a diverse program hosted by Hong Kong students Talia Tom '23, Tyler Martinez '24, and Sebastian Sutch '24 that ranged from cultures in Africa to Asia.

As students entered the Hitchcock Theatre, Modern Languages Department Chair Mamadou Pouye gifted our ears with some classic Senegalese drumming. To start off the show, juniors Suzie Diaz represented Mexico by singing the Spanish song La Trenza, Mei Gong from China performed the Chinese folk song 玉珍 and Tristain Hui continued with a Cantonese pop song by Hong

Kong-Canadian singer-songwriter Jay Fung called “Sweetly, 報復式浪漫.”

All of these performances shared the students’ respective languages with the rest of the school. Representing the West was an unconventional presentation by Josie Frazer '24, who read a personal essay about her Danish heritage, her grandmother, and her cultural connection to Christmas. Caroline Keohane '24, joined by a group, shared her special Irish dancing talent with our lucky community. A highlight in this year’s convocation was freshman Ramya Bangaru's ethereal version of Sri Chakra Raja in the native Tamil language, a spiritual and devotional song for the Hindu goddess Lalitha. She was accompanied by Performing Arts Chair John Knecht on Indian drums mridangam, and it is understated to say that the beautiful performance moved the entire school. HLA heads danced to a remix of songs that spanned all Hispanic cultures. As always, to end the event, representing Korea, Cate’s renowned K-POP group, led by seniors Ella Chang and Ella Chen, rewarded us with two riveting and energy-high dances, “Pop” by Nayeon and a mashup of “Antifragile” (LE SSERAFIM) and “Not Shy” (Itzy).

The 2023 International Convocation could not have ended on a better note, and it is owed to all students who participated to share their cultures and the extensive diversity at Cate School.

Watch the full video here.

Choreographer and Hispanic Heritage Month Speaker Kai Martinez

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, choreographer and dancer Kai Martinez spoke to the Cate community. She shared anecdotes from her childhood, growing up in Jackson Heights in a Colombian-American household, and her journey to dance. She candidly spoke about how she found a sense of belonging through dance, sharing, “I never felt like I fit any where just by being myself – that is, until I found dance.” Today, Kai Martinez is world-renowned for her work on Disney’s animated feature film Encanto, and she performed at the 2022 Oscars for her work on the film. During her visit to Cate, Kai also offered an open dance workshop during M-Block to interested students and shared tips, tricks, and advice with enthusiastic dancing students throughout the day. Watch her full convocation here.

Vice President of Global Creative at Vans Jamie Reilly '88

Returning to the Mesa where he spent his days shooting hoops and skateboarding in his checkerboard Vans – also where he met his wife Vanessa Biddle '88 – Jamie Reilly '88 discussed his career path, early influences, and his quest to create culture during a Convocation in January. Combining his passions of skateboarding and punk rock, Reilly became Vice President of Global Creative at Vans, following an extensive career in advertising for big brands such as Google, Red Bull, Target, Pixar, and Apple, where he helped launch the iPad and iPhone. “Skateboarding and punk really instilled in me this idea that I was able to figure things out myself,” he said. “I might not always succeed my first time around, but there is a lot to be learned from this process of trying things. Getting comfortable with failure, experimentation, and persistence. If you try enough things, you will find something that you are good at.”

Quantum Engineering Lead at Google Jeremy Hilton

A night of quantum mechanics made for a thought-provoking Convocation this November when Quantum Engineering lead for Google, Jeremy Hilton, spoke to the community about the origins of quantum mechanics and explained the fundamentals of quantum computing. “I’ve been in the field for a long time so I’m quite passionate about it; I hope some of that excitement transfers to all of you as you might consider what you might do in the world,” said Hilton as he began his talk. In his advanced and nuanced presentation, Hilton reviewed the basics of what quantum computing is, shared pictures of the hardware used at Google in this work, and how it is applied in impacting the world.

Watch the full video here.

Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert

“What did we learn, what do we take forward, and what do we leave behind?” These are the questions Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert ponders as Patagonia celebrates its 50th year in 2023. Gellert visited Cate in February for an engaging Convocation about business, purpose, and service and where the paths of all three coalesce. Unlike typical Convocations, Gellert’s address to the community looked like a student-moderated panel run by Carly Weinberger '23, Ellie Tunnel '23, Charlotte Wells '24, Mei Gong '24, and Gigi Geyer '23, followed by an audience question and answer session. “How do we use our voice, our people, and our community to better the planet? We have now worked to connect our values with the financial value of Patagonia, and we will work toward sustaining this in the 50 years to come,” shared Gellert.

*A video recording of this convocation is not available.

Product Manager at Alchemy and Web3 Developer Elan Halpern '16

When Elan Halpern '16 was at Cate, she hoped to return as a Convocation speaker, but she didn’t expect to return so soon. The ambitious Stanford graduate works to develop products in the cryptocurrency world, and broke down the basics of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and Web3 for her Cate audience. “The big innovation with blockchain is that machines can now exchange value. We’re no longer just exchanging information; we’re now exchanging actual value.” Her informative and engaging talk came to a close in the best Cate way possible – an announcement of a Free Day.