Speech Delivered at BHS' CAS Graduation, May 30, 2011 by Siena Meeks

When Kyle died last year, it was hard to conceptualize how we could all sit here together today, beginning to move forward in our lives without him. While that unquestionably is not easy to do now; sitting with Leib on my right and Zach on my left, surrounded by my CASmates: by my brothers, my sisters and all the heroic teachers that have held us up time and time again, I feel safe.

What we all have created here is extraordinary. Gemma and I spent the morning after Kyle’s accident frantically texting each and every one of you, confirming that you all would be attending the gathering for Kyle at Minassian’s house later that evening. Her house that night, while overwhelmed with sobbing students and teachers, had an invincible shield around it, ready to protect and hold together any familiar face welcomed in. Leaving that night, entering back into what we were just reminded was a vulnerable and destructible world, I remember longing for that majestic shield again. Over the next few days, spent exclusively in the comfort of my CAS family, I realized that what I had felt was not some magical shield; it was us.

It’s as if all the hardships we endured freshman and sophomore year, were only to bind us more tightly together, to prepare us to withstand the pouring rain.

I think what we’ve created is similar to a net; there to catch anyone who’s falling, and strong enough to catch us all at once on March 31^st.

While I am terrified to leave the safety of this reassuring net, I am comforted by the fact that as we break apart from each other, this net will only expand and the powerful community we have created will continue to hold us up.

Speech Delivered at BHS' CAS Graduation, May 30, 2011 by Gracie Mungovan

Freshmen year, we were small. We had nervous smiles and skinny legs, opinions that faltered when brought into the light.

The death of our brother Kyle during junior year seared a road through our collective heart, destroying all that was profane in our lives. This road broke through our days as we had known them and shattered the normalcy of life. It dragged us many levels deeper then the typical teenage fare did. We fell hard and we fell together.

Just as death cut through us and intensified our interactions with our lives, a second force, both older and more powerful then death rose to complete the process. A force that turns profound life riddles into poems and illuminates meaning in chaos was activated deep within us to transform the broken pieces of the collective heart. The type of love that emerged in the community was love that had already been present; built within the infrastructure of the program and laying latent as potential within the nervousness of our freshmen smiles. Our heartbreak created a shift in the air, in our perspectives, in our psyches. This shift revealed what had been waiting for us as we grew. When the normalcy of our days was destroyed and time itself seemed to distort, a new kind of self emerged from each and every one of us; a self only present before in the glimmers of electricity that tease every soul.

We come from different backgrounds, we have vastly different perspectives on life and we certainly all look different, but when we were the most disillusioned we sought solace in each other. A tremendous love was indeed present within the differences and tension that existed between us.

When I look at my classmates now I see young people who have been touched with things older than time. The potential of freshmen year has fully exploded and actualized. The seeds of destiny and character that we held within us erupted when jarred by the twining of pain and magic, light and dark, love and death.

What makes CAS a brilliant and revolutionary program is the recognition that the work of the world is not done, that it hangs in the balance waiting to be pushed into a new direction. The institutions that uphold social inequalities are temporary, and the persistent chaos and heartbreak that plague our world are similarly transitional stages. The work that must be done in a global sense is the same work that I have seen in my CASmates. As people we have transformed from the naive potential of our freshmen selves into people in contact with deeper truths. Likewise I think the world today will age a similar transition and grow from chaotic potential into a more mature and beautiful self. In CAS acknowledgement of personal power has been built into the program; it affirms the strength of our transformations when dealing with the world. It remembers that that which occurs within somehow shifts without, that our personal revolutions have somehow left the world changed. The world is ultimately created in the images that we hold inside, and those have now been shaded and outlined in the ink of our connection to each other and the depths of ourselves. The veil between the world we live in and the world we wish to create will be pierced by the type of love that is created in communities like CAS amongst teachers and students, people of all backgrounds and abilities.

We move out into the world different people then who we were. We have encountered the mystery: the mystery of who we might become, the mystery of the Other, the mystery of different people coming together in community, and the mystery of loving deeply and having life end. However, paradoxically, even when we lost we gained. When we fell we were gathered up again by love that emerged from distant corners, we felt hands on all sides rush to keep us up, to give us a reassuring squeeze, to match us pulse to pulse, to confirm that connection was present. Having encountered this, I know we move forth, and there is a part of us deep inside that can never truly be afraid again.

Speech Delivered at BHS' CAS Graduation, May 30, 2011 by Leib Sutcher

It is often in the most unexpected moments, the ones in which we think we will gain the least, when we learn the most.  While procrastinating for this speech, something I and every other one of my CASmates does for every writing assignment we’re assigned—well, except for Callie-- I asked random people what I should write about. I was told to “just talk about the moments that brought you guys close?” Unable to shake my writers block, I started to daydream about some of the times both good and bad that we endured together:

·      In Spanish, Mr. Shiner’s class spending the first 30 mins of class each day keeping our English dream logs.

·      Or our endless Chem labs in Mr. Boltz’ where in the first 15 mins of class Aaron would finish his lab and the next 45 would be the rest of the class passing Aaron’s lab booklet around copying it.

·      Or in Mr. Smith’s class hearing stories that were unbelievable.  No really, they weren’t believable.  He lied to us every day. Whether it be about a relationship with two twins and their mother, or that he had actually checked our lab binders over the weekend, we figured him out pretty quickly and spent our class time building our bond.

These and many more early CAS experiences which were planned as academic learning turned out to be a whole different kind of learning—not the kind we had imagined, nor the kind our parents might have hoped we were having—but still the ones in which we often learned the most valuable lessons. They have brought us so close together. I hate to say it but Ms. Nesperos said it the best. One class period, when we were on her last nerve, she was trying to make a seating chart that led to a productive class period, she squeaked in her deep voice “CAS is so hard to control! I make seating chart after seating chart trying to find one where you guys are sitting next to kids that you won’t talk to. It’s impossible. You are all friends!!”

How did so many different kinds of people get to become “all friends”?

CAS throws you into uncharted waters, off the beaten path. CAS is the unbeaten path. When I chose CAS, all my friends’ parents would ask me, “Oh are you in AC too?”  I would say, “No, actually, I’m in CAS.”  They would then awkwardly say, “Oh…Oh that’s nice too!” or “That’s the video one, right?”  But CAS challenges you in ways that you wouldn’t normally just fall into. CAS forces you to push yourself and push your class mates into places and situations that are not always relaxed or safe. Whether we are debriefing Jim Wise’s speech addressing white privilege or talking about P-Boss at the senior retreat, we were often made to feel uncomfortable and confused about the world. It is these pushes that begin to shape a community that is so tight knit, that brings so many different mindsets and opinions together in a space where they can interact and develop, creating bonds that are stronger than friends. This approach to school produced the confident, questioning, and thoughtful young adults we have become.

That being said there is no other place that feels more safe or comfortable than CAS. When it comes to a distressing situation or hard day, CAS is there with Vonnie’s smile lifting you up in the darkest of times, or Zaybo’s big embrace, or Grace’s outlook on life. All there, there to hold you up. It is both comfortable and uncomfortable. Safe and unsafe. THIS is what makes CAS, and its graduates, so special.

As I look up at you now, I see the absence of one face, who I sat next to at my first ever graduation from Oxford elementary, 7 years ago, and my last graduation from King Middle, 4 years ago, and in my US History class 1 year 3 months and 5 days ago. I feel deeply saddened by the loss of the presence that Kyle always brought with him wherever he went.  Around Kyle, you felt loved, appreciated, and special, but also young, lead, and protected. I felt like whatever we were doing was important, exciting, and fun. I think Kyle has taught us all many things. And if he personally didn’t teach you something, the aftermath of the tragedy that took his life did. In remembering Kyle, we are taught the power of community, thus the power of CAS.

In your future endeavors make sure to find your CAS in the world. Continue to be pushed and push others past yours and their comfort zone, and be willing to take a risk and not always do the safe thing. At the same time, keep a community surrounding you in which you feel protected and at ease.

Kyle always ended his essays with a quote because he (and Edward Norton) said someone else has already said it best. So if you can’t top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I am stealing a line from Kyle.

And I believe in ‘one person can make a difference’ because if everybody believed they couldn’t, nothing would ever change.

Today, we are that one person Kyle wrote about. We, are the CAS Class of 2011.

Article about Kyle in the Berkeley Times

“Passion” is a word that comes up a lot when people reminisce about Kyle Harty Strang.

At 16, Kyle was an athletic kid with arresting green eyes, an easy smile and a natural way of bringing people together. He was well known at Berkeley High for his loyalty to his friends and his Jewish pride. And he was passionate: about baseball, about his family and — increasingly, in the year before his death — about Israel.

“He was absolutely committed to going to Israel after graduation,” said his father, Craig Strang, explaining that Kyle felt that, as a Jew, it was his duty to serve in the Israeli army. “He told me it was his home as much as it was for any Jew.”

Kyle Harty Strang

Kyle, however, never made it to “his home.” He was killed in a car crash on March 31, 2010, losing control of his vehicle on an expressway, crossing the center divide and slamming into a bus. There were no passengers on board and the driver wasn’t hurt, but Kyle and his passenger, Prentice Gray Jr., one of his best friends, were killed instantly.

Now, one year after his death, 20 of the people closest to him are about to go to Israel in his honor — under the auspices of a new project named the Kyle Harty Strang Leadership Program.

The program is an educational and skill-building project for teens, with the goal of bridging gaps in knowledge about the conflict in the Middle East and humanizing the problems of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It came together through a collaboration between Communication, Arts and Sciences — a small school-within-a-school that Kyle attended at Berkeley High — and Seeking Common Ground, a Denver-based peace-building nonprofit that brings together U.S., Israeli and Palestinian teens.

After months of leadership development activities and fundraising — to the tune of $90,000 over six months — the teens will depart on a 10-day trip to Israel and the West Bank, accompanied by Craig Strang and CAS teacher Hasmig Minassian.

The group is slated to meet with people on different sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The departure date, by coincidence, organizers said, is March 31 — exactly one year after Kyle’s accident.

Craig, Associate Director at Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, said that while his family is still reeling from its loss, forming the program has been a tangible way to honor Kyle’s memory.

“We knew we didn’t want a lot of expensive flowers, to have people spend money that way,” Craig said of the first few days after his son’s death. “So we decided to set up a memorial fund at Berkeley High to benefit CAS, to support Kyle’s teacher’s and friends in some way.”

Craig says the CAS community had become a second family to his son, who had good relationships with many of his teachers and moved in and around different social circles with ease. Fittingly, it was one of his close CAS friends who came up with the idea of the Israel trip as a component of the program.

“We were sitting around brainstorming about what to do with the memorial money, and people were talking about things around Berkeley High — posters of influential people in the classrooms, or creating some kind of media space named after Kyle, and then we started talking about trips,” recalled Leib Sutcher, a CAS senior going on the trip and one of Kyle’s best friends. “I said, ‘I think it’s pretty obvious, we have to go to Israel.’ That’s what Kyle would have wanted to do.”

Kyle’s passion for Israel and Judaism was unquestioned and organic. Though his family isn’t particularly religious and his parents have never been to Israel, he seemed to latch onto Judaism when his parents got divorced.

“I think he gained a great deal of comfort from his Jewish identity during really difficult times of his life,” Craig explained. “It was part of his identity that could not be taken away from him. When he was bar mitzvahed, he took that on in a really eager way that was sort of hard even for me to understand.”

Some of his connections were untraditional, such as when he opted to get a Star of David tattoo (with the Sh’ma written inside it) on his chest. And while other kids directed their energy toward college applications, Kyle focused on making his move to Israel as soon as possible after graduation.

“It was something we had many long conversations about, and that he often talked about with his friends,” Craig said. “No one could talk him out of it.”

On their trip to Israel, students will complete video and photo projects, and when they return, they will give presentations to other classes on what they learned about the conflict. And while the trip may be a one-time thing — it’s not technically sponsored by Berkeley High — the leadership program bearing Kyle’s name is on track to become a fixture in the CAS community.

For Kyle’s father, there’s a mix of emotions as the departure date approaches. “With this anniversary coming up, everybody’s sort of looking forward to it and dreading it,” Craig said. “I still can’t believe it’s been a year.”

Sutcher said that, all in all, the trip feels like the perfect way to honor his friend’s life and passions — even though Kyle’s politics were decidedly more pro-Israel than the curriculum of this program.

“Kyle stood up for what he believed in, and he loved to argue his point, no matter if he felt outnumbered,” Sutcher said. “And he strongly believed that Israel belonged to the Jews. He held firmly to that stance. And I guess some people might say Kyle wouldn’t necessarily agree with this attitude that’s so in the middle … But I also think that in his life, Kyle was a bridge-builder. He had a really diverse group of friends, he brought people together left and right.”

Article about Kyle in Berkeleyside

Kyle was 16 years old when he died. He and his close friend Prentice lost their lives in a fiery crash on the Richmond Parkway, March 31, 2010, in a tragic end to two promising lives.

Kyle, a junior at Berkeley High School, had more to do in this world. He dreamed of going to Israel, because of a deep connection he felt, and his desire to make a difference for peace and security within the region. While his classmates were taking the SAT prep classes, Kyle was earning money to pay for a one-way ticket to Tel Aviv. His determination and passion were such that no one doubted he would get there. The only question was how he would choose to engage in the struggle for peace. With knowing eyes and a heart bigger than most, Kyle formed deep friendships everywhere he turned. He was gifted in finding ways to bridge differences; he exuded empathy and understanding. Kyle was everyone’s friend.

Kyle’s classmates and teachers have taken on his dream, and are pushing to make the trip that Kyle was unable to make. In his honor, a group of 17 Berkeley High School students and teachers are raising funds to create the Kyle Harty Strang Leadership Program and 2011 Middle East Encounter Trip. The group has partnered with an international, nonpartisan, non-profit organization called Seeking Common Ground, based in Denver. Seeking Common Ground connects young leaders in Palestine, Israel and the United States — the next generation of leaders — to help them learn about the conflict in the Middle East and related issues, as well as build skills and dispositions that promote listening, respectful discourse, and abilities to transform antagonistic relationships into partnerships. Rather than trying to advance a specific agenda, Seeking Common Ground works to promote dialogue and to help people with multiple perspectives to come to understand, if not agree with, another’s point of view. Seeking Common Ground uses this person-to-person strategy to break down stereotypes of “the other.” While other seniors at Berkeley High will be spending their spring semester winding down, these 17 classmates of Kyle’s will be participating in three leadership development retreats conducted by Seeking Common Ground, and going on a ten-day trip to the Middle East where they will meet with Palestinian and Israeli teens who struggle with working through conflict in all parts of their lives.

At least that’s the plan. The first of the Kyle Harty Strang Leadership Development retreats is later this month, with two others to follow. However, the trip will only happen if these students are successful in raising enough funds.

Kyle’s family has contributed all of the funds in the Kyle Harty Strang Memorial Fund — donations from over 162 people nationwide who want to honor the memory of Kyle. A grant of $5,000 was made by the Samuel Rubin Foundation. $6,000 was raised at a pair of benefit dinners held at the guerilla restaurant, Café 20, earlier this month. And in addition to their college applications, students in the program have submitted applications to local Jewish organizations for scholarships, one of which has been awarded. Counting each family’s contribution, the total is within reach. However, many thousands more must be raised.

If you are interested in supporting this worthwhile endeavor and memorial to Kyle, please consider attending one or more of the following benefit events, or simply making a tax deductible donation to the Kyle Harty Strang Memorial Fund. Details follow:

Bungee Jumpin’ Cows Benefit Concert

Come hear the Bay Area’s favorite children’s science rock band in this special benefit concert. Silly, fun, rousing, hilarious and educational, the Bungee Jumping Cows are guaranteed to please young and old alike. Be prepared for pirates, termites, cavemen, Bubba the frog and more. Come on down… you might learn a science concept or two while you are laughing!

Sunday, February 13, Aurora School Auditorium, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m., sliding scale for tickets ($5 and up)

Benefit Film Screening of My So-Called Enemy

Filmmaker Lisa Gossels’ film My So-Called Enemy, follows six Israeli and Palestinian participants of the 2002 Seeking Common Ground Building Bridges for Peace program. It beautifully captures the power of their summer experience and then follows the girls as they navigate their relationships over the next seven years. As described on its website, the film “speaks to the humanity and complexities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in every frame. But, it is also a coming of age story that transcends the conflict.  It’s about the power of individual narratives to open hearts and minds, challenge long-held pre-conceptions, and create the space for dialogue, with the goal of creating more just societies here and abroad.” The film was shown at the SF Jewish Film Festival last July.

Sunday March 6, Berkeley High School Little Theater, 4:00-6:00 p.m., tickets on a sliding scale ($10 and up)

Tax deductable donations to the Kyle Harty Strang Memorial Fund can be made by sending a check made payable to: The Berkeley Public Education Foundation, write “Kyle Strang Memorial Fund” on the memo line, and send to: Kyle Strang Memorial Fund, 828 Ashbury St., San Francisco, CA 94117.

Or go directly to the Berkeley Public Education Foundation to donate online.  In the place where it asks whether you’d like to dedicate your donation, write: Kyle Strang Memorial Fund.