Second Annual Greenway Symposium
Skye Scott, assistant editor
On Jan. 21, 2018, St. Anne’s-Belfield School (STAB) held their second annual Greenway Symposium. The Symposium was entirely student run and designed to connect STAB more closely with the local community. The Symposium speakers were all authors in various genres: John Grisham, Paul Perrone, John Hart, and Dr. William Winter.
John Grisham is an author and former lawyer, who was born in Arkansas. He and his family now live in Charlottesville, where his children attended STAB. Grisham spoke on how he discovered his love and talent for writing, since it was never his dream to be an author. He went to law school and loved the courtroom. Ironically, it was this love that led him to begin writing. After an underage sexual assault court case that he could not get out of his head, he decided write about it. This led to his first book, A Time to Kill, which explores what would have happened if the young girl’s father had killed the alleged assailant. A Time to Kill was published in 1988. Ever since then, he has written and published one book per year.
The next speaker was Paul Perrone. Perrone’s books are different from Grisham’s in that they are more traditionally about technology. He is also the founder of Perrone Robotics, one of the first companies to create prototype driverless cars. Perrone’s talk focused less on the books he has written and more on his journey through technology and driverless cars, as well as where he thinks the United States is headed as far as technology goes. He also spoke about the fears many people have about robots taking over the world. He said transcendence was much more likely, which he defines as the blending of technology and the natural life to the point that machines will have the ability to do what humans can do.
After a short intermission, John Hart spoke next. Hart is from Durham, NC; however, like Grisham, he and his family now live in Charlottesville and his children attend STAB. His story was similar to Grisham’s in that he is also a former lawyer. However, he had the desire to write and be an author for much longer. His talk took a more encouraging route for those students who may want to pursue a career in writing. He said, “Dreams are about finding your way to something meaningful.” He also said that you should grab dreams if you have them, but don’t lose heart if you have not discovered them yet. After many years of being rejected by publishers and following a career path he was not happy in, he was finally published. Now he has five New York Time Best Seller Awards, including one for his first published book The King of Lies. He said that his liberal arts education helped him achieve this success by teaching him to have faith that he could achieve.
The last speaker for the Symposium was Dr. William Winter. Winter is the owner of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine Clinic. He is also the author of The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It. He spoke a lot about common reasons people cannot sleep well, especially regarding insomnia. He said that sleep is a skill, and he gave the audience some facts for mastering it. These facts included that sleep hygiene does not cure sleep problems, sleeping pills work on the placebo effect, and that body temperature may matter for good sleeping conditions more than light.
After a brief period of questions, the student symposium leaders thanked everyone for coming before dismissing the Greenway Symposium.
