The Ethics Institute Concludes Its 2024–2025 Empowered Parent Series

The Ethics Institute at Kent Place has completed its Empowered Parent Series for the 2024–2025 academic year. The team at the Ethics Institute welcomed experts, thought leaders, teachers, and school administrators to take part in ethical dialogue with parents through a group of workshops. 

The series kicked off with the Ethics 101 Parent Workshop, at which Karen Rezach, Director of the Ethics Institute, introduced parents to the methods used with students to encourage ethical thinking, as well as the many activities parents and their daughter(s) have to engage with ethics while at Kent Place. 

Next came a two-part series on the role of AI in education, a discussion with technology specialists at Kent Place about Instagram’s new teen accounts, and a workshop with James Sherer, a psychiatrist at Overlook Hospital and Atlantic Health Systems, who specializes in social-media addiction. 

In winter and spring, the Ethics Institute welcomed Kent Place’s Director of College Advising Jennifer Simpson and alumnae Natasha Wan ’21, Sophia Famular ’21, and Shefali Kamilla ’21 to discuss the ethics of the college process. Most recently, all three Division directors — Kimberly Walker, Director of the Primary School, Neisha Payne, Director of the Middle School, and Evelyn Hannah, Director of the Upper School — discussed ways in which parenting has changed in the age of social media and smartphones, and how parents can best support their students to be thoughtful, independent leaders.

“The most interesting thing I learned was that regardless of our backgrounds and family dynamics, many issues are the same in all of our homes. These chats are really a way to see that and support each other,” said Lori Obalde P ’29 ’31 ’33, a parent liaison for the Ethics Institute.

“The Ethics Institute’s mission is to promote the practice of ethical decision-making with all constituents in the K–12 communities,” says Dr. Rezach. “To that end, this year’s Empowered Parent Series afforded parents the opportunity to grapple with the ethical dimensions of some of the most pressing issues of our time — issues that are especially relevant for those in a parenting role.”

The Ethics Institute has exciting plans for next year, starting with an Ethics 101 Workshop in the fall. “I look forward to working with parents to provide an enriching slate of topics for next year,” Dr. Rezach says, “such as discussions about AI and social media, the ways that parents can incorporate ethics into their most difficult decisions, and other issues on students’ and parents’ minds.”

Says Nina Hallgren P ’33, who is another parent liaison, “I’m looking forward to next year’s series. I’m interested to learn more about how to respect children’s autonomy and privacy while also protecting them, especially in online environments. How do we balance safety with trust? How much monitoring is too much? These questions feel more important as kids grow older and begin forming their own identities offline and online.”

Do you have an ethical question or topic you’d like to learn more about during the 2025–2026 Empowered Parent Series? Let us know! Email ethics@kentplace.org.

Learn more about the Ethics Institute and upcoming events here, and be sure to follow @ethicseverywhere on Instagram.