CatlinSpeak starts new Humans of Catlin Gabel column

By Torin Hough, ‘24

CatlinSpeak is starting a new column inspired by the New York City-based photojournalism project, Humans of New York.

Humans of New York (HONY) began as an attempt to photograph 10,000 random people on the streets of New York to “create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants,” as the website says.

Once the founder, Brandon Stanton, started interviewing his subjects along with taking their photos, HONY quickly grew into a social media phenomenon with over 11 million followers on Instagram and 17 million followers on Facebook.

CatlinSpeak is attempting to emulate HONY with a new series of short, 300 word articles about random Catlin Gabel School (CGS) Upper School (US) community members.

The goal is to uplift and showcase brief stories of US students and faculty. Using a list with every US student and staff, a random number generator will select one to be interviewed and featured, if they wish.

For October, CatlinSpeak interviewed Olivia Levy, a sophomore at Catlin Gabel School (CGS) hoping to make it through the year… and a little bit more.

Levy plays soccer through CGS. She also practices taekwondo, a long-time activity. She described it as fun, if challenging to do, during COVID-19. Up until recently, she also played piano and soccer for a team outside of school.

In school, Levy enjoys Spanish and art classes.

“I’ve liked math, but then it got hard, so it’s less fun,” she added with a laugh.

In addition to math, Levy is also finding challenges in science, English, and the general experience of high school, although she has a plan to get through it.

“Be less stressed each day,” she said.

She intends to stay on top of homework and get more sleep to help with that. Beyond that, Levy doesn’t currently have any long-term goals.

Levy finds that her most significant influences are her family and friends in her day-to-day life and the “people that I talk to throughout the day the most,” she said.

While she doesn’t have any idols, per se, she admires “celebrities that do their job and [also] do activist things.”

In addition to just admiring prominent activist celebrities, Levy also engages in protests, noting that she went to the important climate change march on September 24th, 2021. She described it as “pretty good.”

This year, Levy is looking forward to being able to drive once she turns 16.

She’s excited for “just, like, more freedom overall,” she finished.