Seth & Aubrie Drayer

Dunkirk , a newly released WWII film, opens with 400,000 Allied soldiers stranded on a beach—beyond the saving reach of British destroyer vessels because of shallow waters—with the enemy strangling from all sides. The film details the soldiers’ struggle for survival, but in a pivotal scene, the true story takes a sharp turn as hundreds of unexpected ships appear on the horizon. Surprised, the navy commander responsible for the painstakingly slow shuttling of soldiers off of the beach raises binoculars. What he sees is one of the most remarkable rescue efforts of the 20th century. In this hour of great need, a call had gone out for ships without the depth restrictions of the destroyers. In response, about 850 private boats sailed across the Channel from England to France to bring their boys home. As my colleagues and I watched the film together, I was transfixed by this scene portraying the “little ships of Dunkirk.” Entering the war zone on these boats, putting their lives a...

If you were to stumble into the Created Equal training center this summer, you would find an interesting sight: an Ivy League graduate seated next to a high school senior, a vegan student enjoying a salad next to another savoring a hamburger, and hands shooting into the air or sudden applause as all passionately defend their position on a range of philosophical matters. This eclectic scene is Created Equal’s internship. At the beginning of the summer, our latest band of interns arrived with the usual awkwardness felt at the beginning of a school term. But what has united them over the past couple of months is far greater than the happenstance of selecting the same college course. Indeed it is deeper than shared conviction. Over the past two months, they’ve celebrated victories both intimate and public—from hearing a mother outside Planned Parenthood say she has changed her mind to watching the Ohio Senate pass the Dismemberment Abortion Ban. They’ve grappled in our classroom...