Joel Samuels believes we are living through an especially fraught time. There are the geopolitical implications of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Domestically, a big concern is the ever-growing polarization of American politics.
Samuels told the boys Monday that their generation has a chance to either accept the current climate as it is or do everything in their power to be agents of change.
Samuels is coming up on his one-year anniversary as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Carolina. His talk was part of a special Assembly in Pingree Auditorium and Dean Samuels also sat in on History and Ethics classes during the school day.
“For you, I think the challenge is really about trying to bring us all back together and thinking about that,” Dean Samuels said in his talk.
“That is exciting, it’s challenging, but there’s no model or template for that. What is it that you want to do? What impact do you want to make? And it’s going to be in all kinds of (professional) fields, but that through line of thinking intentionally and being connected to rule of law, being connected to holding the government accountable, being connected to civil discourse, is I think an essential piece.”
Dean Samuels has also taught Law at South Carolina and the University of Michigan. He worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and Zimbabwe, and was part of the effort to combat organized crime in Russia in the 1990s. Dean Samuels said that one of the buildings he worked in was bombed on the second day of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Dean Samuels was highly complimentary of Christ School and shared that he too attended an all-boys high school aligned with the Episcopal church (St. Albans School in Washington, D.C.).
“The formative experiences I had at St. Albans, the formative experiences you’re having here at Christ School are the ones that have stayed with me throughout my life. The friendships are among the strongest I have,” Samuels said.
“Think about what you are doing here and how it will connect to what you will do in your lives and how you are laying the foundation for that impact.”
Dean Samuels was introduced in Assembly by Rocky Hansen ’23. Monday’s visit continues a collaboration between Christ School and the University of South Carolina made possible by the generous support of Patricia and Edward Roberts, Jr. ‘61. Ed is a graduate of both Christ School and South Carolina.