Join Amy McDonald for a conversation on creating meaningful change in the United States. We’ll walk step by step through how we arrived at this moment and explore ways to take action in your community and beyond, all through the lens of how white supremacy influences us all.

This lecture with Janet Raloff, MSJ: Editor, Science News/Science News Explores.

This lecture will explain what journalism involves and why it matters. It will show how journalists research, verify facts, and follow ethical standards to inform the public. It will also discuss why paywalls are important to support quality reporting. Janet will explore how to recognize real journalism vs how to clickbait that will focus on sensational headlines instead of meaningful information.

Led by a social worker and PhD candidate who grew up in a police family, this lecture explores the often-invisible mental health pressures facing law enforcement and the ways our current systems strain everyone within them. By weaving personal experience with research, the talk aims to humanize the person behind the badge while examining how structural pressures shape behavior, wellbeing, and public trust. Ultimately, it invites participants to imagine how police can better serve communities and how communities can better support police through approaches grounded in social justice, empathy, and a shared commitment to building safer, healthier environments for all.

We welcome Matthew Facciani a researcher at the University of Notre Dame in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering. He is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a PhD in sociology who trained in neuroscience and psychology. His work focuses on misinformation, media literacy, political polarization, social networks, and the influence of AI on belief formation. He is the author of Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How It Spreads, and What to Do About It(Columbia University Press, 2025), which explores how false beliefs take hold and what can be done to counter them. In his talk, Matthew will discuss the essential tools needed to fight misinformation—drawing from his research and book to help audiences recognize, resist, and reduce the spread of false information.

Applying to college can be a scary prospect—students worry about where they will be accepted, and parents worry about how they will pay for it. The more you know about colleges and their applications, the easier the process will be. Two educators from Yonkers Partners in Education will break down the mystery of where to apply and how. In this workshop, we’ll discuss finding the “Right-Fit College” by understanding Naviance, making a college list, qualifying for opportunity programs, understanding why strong graduation and retention rates matter, breaking down the Common App, and creating a timeline to get it done. Two students will also be selected by raffle to receive free personalized college application support.