Alan Cai, Business Manager
December 8, 2023
Assembly is an integral part of Nobles’ traditions, school culture, and morning routine. While the majority of assembly performances are hosted by members of the community, every few weeks, the assembly stage is graced by an outside speaker, someone who imparts some new wisdom, unique experience, or insightful understanding onto the student body. But, where does the school find these impressive speakers? From Joe Kennedy III to Lech Wałęsa, the school and its “Emperor” of assembly, Director of Assembly Programming, Michael Polebaum (N’ 08), have gone to great lengths to secure speakers that contribute to a vital characteristic of the Nobles education: applied learning.
While it may seem difficult to book world leaders, leading academics, and other impressive figures who have given talks at Nobles, booking agents help provide a degree of accessibility and ease to the process. According to Polebaum, booking agents play a crucial role in getting important speakers onto the morning assembly stage. “I’m in pretty close contact with a number of different speakers agencies. So the way that we got Lech Wałęsa was, I was in touch with his agent, who’s an agent for a lot of people and I always say to him, ‘Who’s available around these dates that you think that might be interesting?’ And also, ‘Who’s already gonna be in Boston around this day?’ Someone who might otherwise be outside of my price range, because they’re already [in the area], are way cheaper. That was the case with Lech Wałęsa, so he was 25% of his normal price,” Polebaum said.
Moreover, in terms of curating the speaker’s list for each year, Polebaum has significant leeway in deciding who gets invited, while budgetary concerns play an important role in making these decisions. Polebaum said, “At the end of the day, it comes down to who I think might be interesting, and I will talk to various departments to get input.” Polebaum works with the scheduling committee and a group of school administrators when inviting assembly speakers. Polebaum said, “I talk with Ms. Easterling, Mr. Gifford, Ms. Genecco, Ms. Finley…that’s the core crew if I have specific questions, or if we need to find additional time.”
Overall, Polebaum tries to stick within certain themes for speakers each year. For example, this year, assembly speaker slots have primarily been allocated to speakers with relevance to topics covered in the History Department. Polebaum said, “So this year is fairly history-heavy. Next year, I’m going to try to talk to my Science department colleagues to see who’s interesting in their field. I try to think about a theme at the beginning of the year to try to create a more cohesive speaker series that’s going to occur throughout the year, since we’re limited to around four outside speakers.”
So how does the school afford all these important speakers? Each year, the assembly speaker program is funded by the revenue generated from two large endowments, solely created for covering the costs associated with inviting assembly speakers. Polebaum said, “Various donors have given a significant amount of money that allows us to operate off of interest earned on those funds. And so that produces generally somewhere around $50,000 a year for me to bring in outside speakers. That can also include travel and housing or travel lodging.” That said, Polebaum’s two endowments aren’t the only ones that foot the bill for our assembly speakers. “Any of the wellness speakers are usually paid for by an endowed fund that Ms. Hamilton oversees as Director of Counseling, so we often will work in tandem…there’s two extra assemblies that are all coming from a wellness perspective,” Polebaum said.
The service that assembly speakers provide to the school is an essential one. This tradition echoes the school’s lasting commitment to leadership for the public good, experiential learning, and more. Recently, with assembly featuring famous world leaders and important politicians, the assembly speaker program has only gained greater acclaim and support from the community. After Lech Wałęsa and Joe Kennedy III, it remains to see what other interesting guests Polebaum has up his sleeve. Who will be next to take the stage?
(Photo Credit: Avery Winder)
