On Nov. 15, 2024, Marlborough School’s Global Futures Institute (GFI) program hosted an event in collaboration with the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall (LAWAC) regarding misinformation in elections.
GFI is a new program at Marlborough dedicated to teaching students how to confidently and skillfully face the challenges and futures of our interconnected world. The GFI program is centered around three vital themes: Environmental Futures, The Future of Democracy and Global Identities.
The LAWAC is a nonpartisan, forum-style program with a mission centered around public education of international, national and regional affairs. It is the largest speakers’ forum in Southern California. LAWAC events span from civic leaders deliberating with students to robust livestream Q&As.
The guest speaker was Christy McCormick, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama to serve in the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. McCormick was brought in by one of the GFI program’s directors Jonothon Allen, who is also a board member of the LAWAC.
Marlborough students were joined by students from other high schools, including Loyola, Mira Costa and Verdugo Hills High School, making it the first multi-school event for the GFI program. The inclusion of several schools ensured that students who attended the event were exposed to a wide range of perspectives and opinions.
“I hope that their takeaway is that no matter where you come from, no matter what school you currently attend, everyone is thinking about this in really impressive ways and asking sophisticated questions, which I found to be reassuring,” Allen said.
Allen said that ideally, students from different schools would have been seated at the same table, but ultimately they decided against this due to the high tensions and strong opinions surrounding the election.
Students learned about election legitimacy and current challenges to election integrity, particularly misinformation and its impacts.
Students’ responses to this event were positive, as the forum’s information on international statistics made quite an impression. Comparing misinformation, political struggles and infringement on rights in different countries gave GFI students a better understanding of political systems outside the United States.
This event was related to the Futures of Democracy unit of GFI. Students from Marlborough’s Presidential Elections class were also invited to the event. Allen said the event gave students an opportunity to dive deeper into democracy and certain values of America.
Many students left the event with a better understanding of how to build good habits as a member of a younger generation in elections. During her talk, McCormick emphasized the importance of sourcing reliable information as well as recognizing misinformation to better prepare students to cast informed votes in the future.
Beyond having learned more about misinformation in the election and election legitimacy, Allen hopes that students gained a more expansive global understanding of democracy. He also noted that students should take the time to listen to each others’ opinions and viewpoints regardless of their experiences or backgrounds.
“It helped me realize how interconnected the world is, even if at times we seem so separated due to varying points of view,” Maniya ’26 said. “I really hope GFI will have more events similar to this one in the future, and hopefully bring it to the entire school community as I feel I heard valuable information that we can all be educated from.”
