When did you feel seen, heard, and known by a teacher? This is one of the questions guests ponder on The Whole Student podcast from Dunn School (CA). Hosted by Head of School Kalyan Ali Balaven, the monthly podcast asks guests to reflect on their relationship with a teacher who left an indelible mark on their lives.
The podcast’s debut episode in October 2021 was an interview with local politician James Joyce III in his run-up to the Santa Barbara mayoral election. Next was a three-part series about women in STEM kicked off by guest Maria Zhang, vice president of engineering at Instagram, who spoke about how a teacher convinced her to join her high school’s competitive math team despite her initial hesitation about being the only girl.
“[It] set the foundation for me to study computer science, which is peripheral to mathematics, and have my career in a competitive field mostly dominated by male peers and coworkers,” she says.
The next episode featured bestselling author Irshad Manji, who talked about how her high school theater teacher helped her move past her father’s abuse by providing a healthy example of manhood and fatherhood and restoring her faith in men and humanity through kindness and understanding.
The podcast, which has released four episodes to date with 10 slated for the first season, is produced under the DunnCast multimedia umbrella. The school plans to create a space in the library to produce this podcast along with student-directed multimedia and shows. A second podcast where Dunn students describe their own educational epiphanies, The Teachable Moment, is currently in development.
The podcast is available on YouTube and the Dunn School website.
International bestselling author Mark Lukach (left) and Kalyan Ali Balaven record a forthcoming episode of The Whole Student in Balaven’s office.
The Whole Student podcast co-producer Brandon Scott (foreground) captures visuals of Kalyan Ali Balaven’s virtual interview with professor Irshad Manji (on screen, right).
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