From national title-winning athletes to politicians, the Secrets-of-Success (SOS) club has had over a dozen guests present to the Parker community since its establishment in 2020. Currently led by juniors Oberon Goldman and Brady Harris, SOS has been an outlet for students to learn from “a host of people at the top of their fields,” as per the club’s Instagram bio.
This year, SOS spoke to Ben Zobrist, former Chicago Cubs player and 2016 World Series MVP, over a Zoom that was open to all Upper School students and parents. “Ikram [Goldman] sent me and Oberon his email, and we emailed him to schedule a time to speak. He was very polite and very easy to get in contact with,” Harris said.
Harris introduced what he believes to be the value and important advice that Zobrist presented during their Zoom. “Ben emphasized mental health and how you need to be in routine to stay level-headed throughout what you do so that you don’t get over-stressed or overstimulated, and that you perform at your best,” Harris said. “That can definitely benefit the Parker community by emphasizing time management and making sure that you are comfortable with what you’re doing and that you’re capable of doing it.”
To Harris, Zobrist was a compelling speaker because of his struggles with mental health throughout his MLB career and how Zobrist worked his way up from Junior College to the minor leagues and finally to winning a World Series in the major leagues. “He is a living example of pushing yourself to the limit to see the success that you want to have in your given career,” Harris said.
Zobrist, however, isn’t the only notable guest that SOS has hosted. Over the past two years, SOS has hosted Brad Torf, a shoe designer for various influencers and celebrities, Ari Shapiro, an NPR podcaster, Peiman Raf, and the CEO of Madhappy.
“We email people that we think have unique professions and are going to be able to talk to a school,” Harris said. “Part of it is family connections, like people that our parents might know.”
Parents, however, aren’t carrying the entire weight of bringing in speakers. “They don’t necessarily ask them to come to speak, they just let us know ‘we know this person, here’s their email, here’s their phone number if you want to reach out to them’ because they want us to have to do the work to get in contact with them,” Harris said.
Goldman agrees, emphasizing the importance of family connections in the process for getting speakers. “We usually have connections to whoever we are interviewing. With Ben Zobrist, his wife shopped at my mom’s store, and since then, they’ve been good friends.”
To some students and attendees, it’s important that SOS promotes diversity, both in job descriptions and backgrounds. “It’s important that SOS has guests that have a wide range of jobs and backgrounds,” junior Ayan Chawla said. “As cool as it is to have a professional athlete come and speak to us, I would also want to hear from people that are politicians or authors and come from different backgrounds.”
“Diversity enriches learning,” Parker’s mission statement says. Chawla believes that not just classes and academic environments should reflect this encouragement of diversity. “We should see diversity in clubs too,” Chawla said. “It goes back to the fact that all students should be able to see themselves reflected in the guests that come to Parker, and everyone should be able to learn from someone they look up to professionally.”
In the heads’ opinions, however, SOS “already promotes diversity,” Harris said, within their club and the speakers they bring to the community. They believe that, over the years of the club’s existence, heads have brought in speakers of “different backgrounds and a wide range of professions,” Harris said.
“[To promote diversity,] We should keep doing what we’re doing,” Harris said. “We have plans to get an IDF soldier to speak, which we think is going to be really important for the Parker community.”
Harris also said that, in his eyes, success isn’t just about money, “it’s about thriving in [your] given profession. We’ve had CEOs, we’ve had athletes, we’ve had designers, we’ve had interviewers, we’ve had talk show hosts. We’re going to continue to just do what we’re doing, making sure that we’re not hearing the same story.”
SOS has no plan to stop expanding, and the heads soon plan on collaborating with the Latin School of Chicago to allow their students to experience the benefits of SOS. “We’ve sent hundreds and hundreds of emails,” Harris said. “Even though so many are left unread, we aren’t planning on giving up any time soon.”
