Growing up in California with two moms – who were only able to legally marry during a brief five-month window in 2008 – Sydney saw firsthand how policy decisions shaped lives. “I became very aware of how polarization affects families on a personal scale,” the recent Carleton College graduate said.
Sydney grew up talking with her parents about political and societal issues at the dinner table. Both of her parents are Jewish lawyers with different perspectives on Israel. Sydney credits those formative discussions with sparking her interest in civil discourse and political engagement. “It got me into this,” she said simply.
At Carleton, Sydney majored in history with a focus on the Middle East. She believed studying history naturally fueled civic participation. “History is the major with the highest voter turnout at Carleton,” she noted. “It comes from learning patterns from the past and changing them in the future.”
Soon Sydney started CarlsVote, a club aimed at increasing voter engagement and turnout on campus. But she realized civic learning could not stop at the ballot box. She noticed patterns of polarization and self-censorship on campus. “People were saying, ‘If you voted for X, don’t talk to me.’” She shared. “I wanted to do work around this at Carleton.”
Supported by Project Pericles “Back to School for Democracy” Mini-Grant, Sydney organized a Depolarization Workshop with Braver Angels. Notably, many peers came together to take on the challenge of deconstructing their biases. The workshop focused on polarization both beyond and within political parties.
Sydney praised the facilitator, Christopher Schoenherr, for his experience and nuanced perspectives. “We had a lot of moments where the facilitator pulled the curtain from our eyes. He used the example of having different perspectives from family at Thanksgiving, but still loving them and wanting them in your life.”
The workshop’s success also sparked faculty interest. “Professors reached out wanting to learn how to integrate polarization work into their courses,” she said. Former Carleton president and current faculty member, Steven Poskanzer, even accompanied Sydney to a County Commissioner’s meeting after learning about the workshop.
Experiences like these are shaping Sydney’s career path. During her time as a student, she spent her summers working on plaintiff-side employment discrimination cases. She next plans to join the Peace Corps for two years with the intention to pursue an LLM focused on international policy and the Middle East. She expressed that her long-term goal is “to work with policies that directly help people,” after seeing how policy affects her own family’s life.
Sydney chose Carleton at the last minute after committing to another school, drawn to Carleton’s collaborative, open-minded culture that makes learning great. “It’s a place where I could express myself,” she said. But she also saw how even in an accepting environment, self-censorship can hold people back. Through her depolarization work, she hopes she’s left Carleton more open, empathetic, and engaged.
“We’ll be doing another Braver Angels event in the fall,” she shared. “It’s been so cool to see how the community wants to learn about depolarization. The work will keep going after I leave.”