The differences we bring to the institutions we belong to strengthen those institutions and our relationships within them, says Dr. Kedra Ishop, the vice provost for enrollment management at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Visiting Milton as this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Speaker, Dr. Ishop provided a history of legal battles for racial and ethnic inclusion in higher education, from Plessy v. Ferguson, a 19th-century Supreme Court case that ruled public institutions may be “separate but equal,” to modern challenges to university admissions processes.

“It matters who you engage with and how you engage with them,” Dr. Ishop told students. “You all learn better, and you learn from each other, when you’re not all the same.”

“The arts are not just ephemeral,” Harvard Professor Sarah Lewis told Milton students. “They carry real weight in the real world.”

Professor Lewis visited Milton as this year’s Margaret A. Johnson Speaker. An assistant professor in Harvard’s Department of Art and Architecture and the Department of African and African American Studies, Professor Lewis works “at the nexus of visual representation, racial inequity and social justice.”

“What do we do when we are the problem in the room?” Kristina Wong asked Milton juniors and seniors. “How do we create equity?”

Ms. Wong performed part of her new, one-woman show, “Wong Street Journal,” in King Theatre. Her visit to Milton was sponsored by the Hong Kong Distinguished Lecture Series.

Ms. Wong opened the show poking fun at her own armchair activism: taking up social-justice causes, she would challenge other social media users, searching for the validation of likes and shares. Writing sensationalized online content could reach a far greater audience than a previous show in which she tackled issues of depression and suicide among Asian-American women.

“At the risk of sounding sentimental, I feel like I’m living my dream right now,” says Kristine Sydney, who joined the English department this year.

Kristine has known Milton for a while: Mathematics faculty member and Outdoor Program director Kendall Chun is a longtime friend who officiated Kristine’s wedding. Her familiarity with Milton kept the School in her mind when she considered moving on from her previous job. Milton’s commitment to diversity made it an even more attractive place when she had her daughter, who is nearly 2 and multiracial.

The reality of Milton has measured up for Kristine, who is teaching Class IV English, Class III Perspectives and Class I Themes in Contemporary World Literature. The freedom Milton gives its English teachers to select student reading has been powerful, she says. One section of her students began the year reading Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, her favorite book largely in part of one line: “Do you understand the sadness of geography?”

“Institutions that promote the pursuit of truth and knowledge need to be honest about themselves,” Professor Craig Steven Wilder told Upper School students. Professor Wilder, an MIT history faculty member and author, was this year’s Heyburn Lecturer.

In researching and writing his latest book, Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities, Professor Wilder revealed nearly universal connections between early American educational institutions and slavery, explaining, “No college or university established before 1800 survived without the slave economy.”

Professor Wilder focused his lecture on Erasmus Hall Academy, founded in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn by Dutch colonists in 1786. Colonial New York was a hub of the Dutch slave trade; several slaveholders and traders gave money to establish Erasmus Hall, which was “as much a commercial and political enterprise as it was an academic one.” The school recruited students from several states and countries by boarding them with slave-owning families, who received an income from the school, Professor Wilder said. Approximately 25 percent of all black people in Kings County, New York, were owned by Erasmus’ charter trustees.

Mental health advocate and spoken-word artist Hakeem Rahim was a freshman at Harvard University in 1998 the first time he had a panic attack. By the end of his sophomore year, he was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit, where he received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and began his journey toward wellness.

Mr. Rahim, this year’s Talbot Speaker, shared his story as part of a presentation to destigmatize mental illness, encourage students to reach out when they’re hurting, and to be supportive friends when someone they know needs help.

“Many people are suffering in silence, and it doesn’t have to be that way,” Mr. Rahim said. “It’s OK to talk about mental illness. There is no shame in seeking treatment, and a diagnosis is not the end.”

Milton’s Veterans Day speaker, Army Brig. Gen. Richard F. Johnson, P’19, encouraged Upper School students to ask themselves two questions: “What inspiration can I draw from the service of veterans?” and, “How will I serve?”

The men and women who have served in the United States armed forces have built a legacy of leadership and service for future generations, who can serve in any capacity they choose—whether in the military or not, the brigadier general told students. Quoting Milton alumnus Robert F. Kennedy, he urged students to meet the challenges of difficult times.

“’All of us may wish, at times, that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t, and if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity,’” said Brig. Gen. Johnson, whose daughters Julia and Kiely are in Class II. He added: “In a world that’s fraught with peril and those that would do harm, your veterans have been the guardians of freedom and the protectors of peace and humanity. Celebrate their service and sacrifice by making your own contribution. Find your future, decide how you will serve, and pay the best tribute that you can to those who have served you.”

For the second year, Milton students volunteered to mentor middle- and elementary-school students at HUBweek’s Girl Hackathon, a Boston event that encourages young girls to develop a love of computer programming and coding.

Jessica Wang (I), Charlotte Moremen (II), Amaya Sangurima-Jimenez (II) and Jen Zhao (II), served as mentors during the hackathon. Using Hopscotch, a kid-friendly coding app, teams of two created games, later presenting their projects to the group. It’s not a competition; it’s a chance for girls to explore the possibilities of coding in a collaborative and supportive setting, and to be proud of their creations, says mathematics faculty member Emily Pries.